Mayan Language (1 results)

First Edition. [Indigenous Language] Tozzer, Alfred M. A Maya Grammar, with Bibliography and Appraisement of the Works Noted. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 1921. First edition, first printing. Issued as Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. IX. Original printed wrappers. 301 pages. 8vo. A foundational study in Maya linguistics by Alfred Marston Tozzer (1877-1954), Harvard archaeologist, anthropologist, and one of the earliest U.S. scholars to systematically study Maya language and culture. Drawing upon his fieldwork in Yucatán, Chiapas, Tabasco, and northern Guatemala during the early 1900s, Tozzer compiles and analyzes Maya grammar in a structured form comparable to Latin models, with extensive sections on phonetics, syntax, and verb classification. His preface acknowledges the assistance of leading anthropologists including Franz Boas and F.W. Putnam, as well as the support of Charles P. Bowditch, described as "that greatest of all friends of Maya research." The text includes not only grammar and syntax but also a comprehensive bibliography with appraisal of earlier works, positioning this as both a reference and historiographical study of Maya scholarship. The work remains a cornerstone in the field of Mesoamerican linguistics, particularly for its attempt to codify Maya languages using comparative methods. Tozzer's systematic treatment reflects the early 20th-century intersection of archaeology and philology, and the book is still cited in modern scholarship for its detailed documentation of dialects and grammatical processes. The volume embodies the Peabody Museum's central role in shaping American anthropology and the academic study of Indigenous cultures of the Americas. Wear to wrappers and some pages frayed or uncut, some pencil markings to cover and first few pages, otherwise clean. Overall very good condition. An important first edition of a landmark in Maya studies scarcely found on the market, crucial for institutions collecting in linguistics, anthropology, and Latin American history.