Tozzer, Alfred Marston

Alfred Marston Tozzer was born in Lynn, MA on July 4, 1877 to Samuel Clarence Tozzer, and Caroline Blanchard (Marston) Tozzer. He grew up in Lynn and after graduating from high school, attended Harvard College where he received the A.B. in 1900, the A.M. in 1901, and the Ph.D. in 1904, all three degrees in anthropology. On April 10, 1913 he married Margaret Tenney Castle of Honolulu, Hawaii, in New York. They had two daughters. The elder, Joanne, died young. The other, now Joan Tozzer Cave, grew up to stay in Cambridge.

Tozzer conducted his initial anthropological fieldwork in California and New Mexico among the Wintun and Navajo nations during his undergraduate summers in 1900 and 1901, focusing on linguistics. From 1902 to 1905 he held the American Fellowship of the Archeological Institute of America. This enabled Tozzer to spend four winters living with and studying the Lacandones of Mexico and Central America. He won their confidence and was admitted to their religious ceremonies. He published the results of his field work in A Comparative Study of the Mayas and Lacandones (1907).

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