Alfred Marston Tozzer (July 4, 1877 – October 5, 1954) was an American
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
,
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
,
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, and educator. His principal area of interest was
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...
n, especially
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...
, studies. He was the husband of
Margaret Castle Tozzer and father of figure skating champion
Joan Tozzer.
Early studies and career
Alfred Tozzer was born in
Lynn,
to Samuel Clarence (1846–1908) and Caroline (née Marston, 1847–1926) Tozzer, and graduated in anthropology from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1900. That summer he entered field as an assistant to Harvard's
Roland Dixon
Roland Burrage Dixon (November 6, 1875 – December 19, 1934) was an American anthropologist.
Early life and education
Born at Worcester, Mass, in 1897 he graduated from Harvard University, where he remained as an assistant in anthropology, taki ...
to study American Indian languages of California. The following year he collected linguistic and ethnographic data on the
Navajo
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
s living near
Pueblo Bonito
Pueblo Bonito (Spanish for ''beautiful town'') is the largest and best-known great house in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northern New Mexico. It was built by the Ancestral Puebloans who occupied the structure between AD 828 and 1126. ...
in New Mexico. From these experiences he published his first paper, which he presented at the Thirteenth
International Congress of Americanists The International Congress of Americanists (ICA) is an international academic conference for research in multidisciplinary studies of the Americas. Established August 25, 1875 in Nancy, France, the scholars' forum has met regularly since its incept ...
held in New York in 1902.
In December 1901, he won appointment as a traveling fellow for the
Archaeological Institute of America
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America's oldest society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and AIA has established re ...
. He spent several seasons in Yucatán conducting fieldwork among the Maya. He began at the
Hacienda Chichén
Hacienda Chichén is located within the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza, in the county of Tinum, Yucatan, Mexico. It was one of the first haciendas established in Yucatán and was in ruins by 1847. Edward Herbert Thompson, U.S. consul in Yucatán ...
, owned by U.S. Consul to Yucatán
Edward H. Thompson, a large plantation that included the ancient city of
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza , es, Chichén Itzá , often with the emphasis reversed in English to ; from yua, Chiʼchʼèen Ìitshaʼ () "at the mouth of the well of the Itza people" was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal ...
. There he studied the Maya language and traveled the countryside collecting folk tales and oral histories. During one of his seasons at Chichen Itza he helped Thompson dredge the
Cenote Sagrado
The Sacred Cenote ( es, cenote sagrado, , "sacred well"; alternatively known as the "Well of Sacrifice") is a water-filled sinkhole in limestone at the pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of Chichen Itza, in the northern Yucatán Peninsula. I ...
; at the end of another, he carried artifacts to the Peabody Museum in his luggage.
In 1903, Tozzer traveled to
Campeche
Campeche (; yua, Kaampech ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Campeche), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by ...
and
Chiapas
Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...
to conduct research among the
Lacandon Maya, and lived for several weeks in a small settlement on
Lake Pethá
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a Depression (geology), basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the World Ocean, oce ...
, witnessing and even participating in their ceremonies. He returned there during the 1904 season. He wrote his PhD dissertation comparing the ceremonies of the Lacondone Maya with the Yucatecan Maya.
In the fall of 1904, he studied at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
under
Franz Boas
Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...
and
Adolph Bandelier
Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier (August 6, 1840March 18, 1914) was a Swiss-born American archaeologist who particularly explored the indigenous cultures of the American Southwest, Mexico, and South America. He immigrated to the United States wi ...
. He spent one more season in Yucatán, Campeche and Chiapas, before settling at Harvard in the fall of 1905 as an assistant professor of anthropology.
Transition to archaeologist
From the beginning of his professional career, Tozzer began to shift more to archaeology and away from
ethnography
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
. During his seasons at Chichen, he assisted
Adela Breton
Adela Catherine Breton (31 December 1849 – June 1923) was an English archaeological artist and explorer. She made watercolour copies of the wall paintings of Mexican temples, notably those of the Upper Temple of Jaguars at Chichen Itza.
Bi ...
with her copies of reliefs, and Thompson who was making paper molds. During his time with the Lacandons he discovered and explored ruins that today share the name of the Rio
Tzendales. In the summer of 1907, he joined Dixon,
Alfred Kidder and
Sylvanus Morley
Sylvanus Griswold Morley (June 7, 1883September 2, 1948) was an American archaeology, archaeologist and epigraphy, epigrapher who studied the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in the early 20th century. Morley led extensive excavations of the Ma ...
on a purely archaeological expedition to Rito de los Frijoles in New Mexico (today part of
Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier National Monument is a United States National Monument near Los Alamos in Sandoval and Los Alamos counties, New Mexico. The monument preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans of a later era in the Southwest. Most ...
).
In 1910 he took a leave of absence from Harvard to lead his first expedition to the ruins of
Tikal
Tikal () (''Tik’al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Co ...
and
Nakum
Nakum ("House of the pot") is a Mesoamerican archaeological site, and a former ceremonial center and city of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the northeastern portion of the Petén Basin region, in the modern-day Guatemalan d ...
on behalf of the university's
Peabody Museum. On this trip Tozzer discovered the ruins of
Holmul
Holmul is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the northeastern Petén Basin region in Guatemala near the modern-day border with Belize.
Location
In spite of its relatively modest size, Holmul was important to ...
.
In 1914 Tozzer took another leave of absence to succeed Boas as director of the
. He arrived in
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
in time to witness the
US Navy shelling of the city. He oversaw excavation of the
Toltec
The Toltec culture () was a Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula (Mesoamerican site), Tula, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoam ...
site at Santiago Ahuitzotla. Once his term as director expired, he never ventured into the field again.
Tozzer eventually returned to Harvard where he would spend the remainder of his professional career, except for stints in the military. He served as a captain in the Air Service from 1917 to 1918. He served as a major in the Reserves from 1918 to 1929. During World War II, he served as director of the Honolulu office of the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
from 1943 to 1945.
Later career
Tozzer returned from World War I to his post as associate professor at Harvard. Within three years he was a full professor and chairman of the Division of Anthropology.
In 1922, Tozzer won appointment to the Academic Board at
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
, and later become a trustee in 1928. He served on Harvard's Administrative Board from 1928 until his retirement in 1948.
Tozzer published several important works in Maya studies, among them, a grammar of the
Maya language
The Mayan languagesIn linguistics, it is conventional to use ''Mayan'' when referring to the languages, or an aspect of a language. In other academic fields, ''Maya'' is the preferred usage, serving as both a singular and plural noun, and as ...
, and an annotated translation of
Bishop Diego de Landa's ''Relación de las cosas de Yucatán''. His ''
magnum opus
A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
'', "Chichen Itza and its Cenote of Sacrifice" (Cambridge, Massachusetts: ''Memoirs of the Peabody Museum'', 1957), was published after his death in 1954. A massive volume with hundreds of illustrations, "It covers every aspect of Chichen Itza: its history, religious cults, arts, and industries as well as contacts with other regions," noted
Samuel Kirkland Lothrop
Samuel Kirkland Lothrop (July 6, 1892 – January 10, 1965) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist who specialized in Central and South American Studies. His two-volume 1926 work ''Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua'' is regarded as ...
in his obituary of Tozzer. "It concentrates in a single volume the learning acquired in half a century."
[Lothrop, Tozzer]
Tozzer was elected by his peers to two consecutive terms as president of the
American Anthropological Association
The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, ...
beginning in 1928. In 1942 he was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
.
In 1974 the Peabody Museum renamed its library the
Tozzer Library
Tozzer Library is Harvard Library's primary source for all subfields of anthropology and archaeology. With over 250,000 volumes, Tozzer is home to one of the largest and most comprehensive anthropology and archaeology collections worldwide. The an ...
, as Tozzer had been active in building its collection and in its management from 1935 to his retirement.
Notes
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tozzer, Alfred Marston
1877 births
1954 deaths
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
American anthropologists
Harvard University alumni
Columbia University alumni
Harvard University faculty
American Mesoamericanists
Mesoamerican archaeologists
Translators from Mayan
Mayanists
20th-century Mesoamericanists
American archaeologists
Linguists from the United States
20th-century translators
Presidents of the American Folklore Society