Anthropologists

Anthropologists who study the Maya of today, and those who came before. Checked November 7, 2026. Back to Topics. Archaeologists and epigraphers and Historians are the other two lists.

Most worked in Maya towns and villages, and some studied Mayan languages. Maya anthropologists are marked. Each name links to a page that confirms where the person works or when they died. Lines marked to verify come from a thin or old source, or name a fact still to be checked. Each line names the field.

50 people.

• Victor Montejo. Maya Jakaltek. UC Davis. Professor Emeritus and former chair of Native American Studies. PhD in anthropology, University of Connecticut, 1993. Guatemala. Field, sociocultural anthropology. Retired. United States. Source
• Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj. Maya K’iche’. Anthropologist and journalist. PhD, UT Austin, 2005. Land, the state, and Indigenous women in Guatemala. Visiting posts at Duke in 2017 and Stanford in 2019. Wrote a column for elPeriódico from 2003 to 2023. Current post not found. Field, social anthropology. Working today. Guatemala. Source
• Aura Cumes. Maya Kaqchikel. Researcher, writer, and teacher. Doctorate, CIESAS, Mexico. Colonialism, patriarchy, and racism in Guatemala. Current post not found. Field, social anthropology, to verify. Working today. Guatemala. Source
• Edgar Esquit. Maya Kaqchikel. Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. History staff of the Instituto de Estudios Interétnicos y de los Pueblos Indígenas, as of its 2023 report. Doctorate, CIESAS. Kaqchikel history and memory, Patzicía. Field, history and anthropology. Working today. Guatemala. Source
• Genner Llanes Ortiz. Maya Yucatec. Leiden University. Faculty of Archaeology, Heritage of Indigenous Peoples. PhD, University of Sussex. Yucatec Maya life, maize, and Maya digital media. Field, anthropology, archaeology, and heritage. Working today. Netherlands. Source
• Juan Castillo Cocom. Maya Yucatec. Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo. Professor, in a 2024 lecture record. Yucatec Maya identity. Field, Maya philosophy and epistemology. Working today. Mexico. Source
• Giovanni Batz. Maya K’iche’. UC Santa Barbara. Assistant Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies. PhD in Social Anthropology, UT Austin, 2017. The Ixil Maya town of Cotzal. Wrote The Fourth Invasion: Decolonizing Histories, Extractivism, and Maya Resistance in Guatemala (UC Press, 2024), which won the Thomas McGann Book Prize in Modern Latin American History in 2025. Field, anthropology and history. Working today. United States. Source PhD
• Edward F. Fischer. Vanderbilt University. PhD, Tulane, 1996. Kaqchikel towns, Tecpán. Field, anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Walter E. Little. University at Albany, SUNY. PhD, Illinois, 2001. Kaqchikel vendors in Antigua Guatemala. Field, cultural anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Judith M. Maxwell. Tulane University. PhD, Chicago, 1982. Kaqchikel, and earlier Chuj and Ixil. Field, linguistics and anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Timothy J. Smith. Appalachian State University. PhD, Albany, 2004. The Kaqchikel language and its teaching. Field, sociocultural anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Garrett W. Cook. Baylor University. Listed as professor. PhD, Albany, 1981. Momostenango. Whether he has retired is to verify. Field, sociocultural anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Victoria Sanford. Lehman College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. PhD, Stanford, 2000. Genocide and truth seeking in Guatemala. Field, anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Linda Green. University of Arizona. Maya widows of the Guatemalan highlands. Field, anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Charles R. Hale. UC Santa Barbara. Race and Indigenous politics in Guatemala. Field, sociocultural anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• David Stoll. Middlebury College. Ixil towns, Nebaj. Field, anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Ricardo Falla. Jesuit priest. Born 1932. The K’iche’ of San Antonio Ilotenango, and the Ixcán. Gave the opening lecture of the year at the University of Costa Rica in 2022. No later source found. To verify. Field, anthropology. Working today. Guatemala. Source
• Quetzil E. Castañeda. Indiana University Bloomington. Yucatec Maya, Chichén Itzá and Pisté. Fieldwork and field schools in Pisté, 1994 to 1999. Field, anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Paul Sullivan. Independent scholar. Yucatec Maya, and the Maya rebels of nineteenth century Yucatán. Field, anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Pedro Pitarch. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. PhD, State University of New York. Tzeltal Maya of Chiapas, since 1988. Field, anthropology of the Americas. Working today. Spain. Source
• Christine Kovic. University of Houston, Clear Lake. Tzotzil Catholics who left Chamula. Field, anthropology. Working today. United States. Source
• Mario Humberto Ruz Sosa. UNAM. Investigador Emérito since 2024. At the Centro de Estudios Mayas from 1978, its coordinator from 2002 to 2005, and director of the Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas from 2016 to 2020. Maya life in colonial times and today. Field, social anthropology and ethnology. Working today. Mexico. Source
• Jesús Lizama Quijano. CIESAS Peninsular. PhD, Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Yucatec Maya festivals. Field, anthropology. Working today. Mexico. Source
• Ella Fanny Quintal Avilés. INAH Yucatán. Yucatec Maya popular religion. The source is a newspaper. No INAH page found. To verify. Field, to verify. Working today. Mexico. Source
• Beatriz Manz. UC Berkeley. Emerita. PhD, SUNY Buffalo, 1977. The Ixcán, the Ixil region, and the Lacandón. Field, social anthropology. Retired. United States. Source
• John B. Haviland. UC San Diego. Emeritus. PhD, Harvard, 1972. Tzotzil, Zinacantán. Field, anthropological linguistics. Retired. United States. Source
• Victoria R. Bricker. Tulane University. Emerita. PhD, Harvard, 1968. Tzotzil ritual humor, Hocabá in Yucatán, and the Maya codices. Field, cultural anthropology and ethnohistory. Retired. United States. Source
• Brent Berlin. University of Georgia. Emeritus. Tzeltal and Tzotzil plant knowledge in highland Chiapas, since 1960. PhD, Stanford, 1964. To verify. Field, anthropology. Retired. United States. Source
• Allan F. Burns. University of Florida. Emeritus. PhD, University of Washington, 1973. Yucatec Maya oral literature, and Q’anjob’al Maya in Indiantown, Florida. Field, applied anthropology. Retired. United States. Source
• Richard R. Wilk. Indiana University. Emeritus. PhD, Arizona, 1981. Belize. Wrote Household Ecology. Economic Change and Domestic Life among the Kekchi Maya in Belize (1991). Field, anthropology. Retired. United States. Source
• Kay B. Warren. Brown University. Professor Emerita. PhD, Princeton, 1974. Maya of highland Guatemala. Died April 16, 2026. Field, cultural anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Gary H. Gossen. SUNY Albany. 1942 to 2025. Chamula, Tzotzil. Wrote Chamulas in the World of the Sun. The source is a funeral home obituary. Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Robert M. Carmack. SUNY Albany. Retired in 2002. PhD, UCLA, 1965. The K’iche’ before the Spanish. Died 2023. Field, cultural anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Barbara Tedlock. University at Buffalo. 1942 to 2023. PhD, Albany, 1978. K’iche’ divination and the calendar, Momostenango. Wrote Time and the Highland Maya (1982). Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Diane M. Nelson. Duke University. Maya life and politics in Guatemala after the war. Died 2022. Field, cultural anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Nora C. England. UT Austin. Mam and other Mayan languages. Died 2022. Field, linguistics. Remembered. United States. Source
• Robert M. Laughlin. Smithsonian Institution. 1934 to 2020. PhD, Harvard, 1963. Tzotzil, Zinacantán. Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Frank Cancian. UC Irvine. 1934 to 2020. Zinacantán. Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• June Nash. City College, CUNY. 1927 to 2019. PhD, Chicago, 1960. The Tseltal town of Amatenango del Valle, Chiapas, from 1957. Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Dennis Tedlock. University at Buffalo. 1939 to 2016. PhD, Tulane, 1968. K’iche’ in Guatemala and Mopan in Belize. Translated the Popol Vuh. Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Evon Z. Vogt. Harvard University. 1918 to 2004. PhD, Chicago, 1948. Zinacantán, Tzotzil. Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Manning Nash. University of Chicago. 1924 to 2001. PhD, Chicago, 1955. Cantel, K’iche’. Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Alfonso Villa Rojas. UNAM. Born in Mérida, 1897. Died 1998. Chan Kom, Tusik, and Yochib. Some sketches give 1906 for his birth. Field, anthropology. Remembered. Mexico. Source
• Sol Tax. University of Chicago. 1907 to 1995. PhD, Chicago, 1935. Panajachel, Guatemala. Wrote Penny Capitalism (1953). Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source Panajachel
• Charles Wagley. University of Florida. 1913 to 1991. PhD, Columbia, 1941. Santiago Chimaltenango. Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Myrna Mack Chang. AVANCSO, Guatemala City. Born in Retalhuleu in 1949. She helped found AVANCSO and studied Maya families driven from their homes by the war, among them the Communities of Population in Resistance. In 2003 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found that she was killed in 1990 because of this research, in an operation planned within the Presidential General Staff. In 2004 the Guatemalan state accepted responsibility in public. Field, anthropology. Remembered. Guatemala. Judgment in English en español
• Ruth Bunzel. Columbia University. 1898 to 1990. PhD, Columbia, 1929. Chichicastenango, K’iche’. Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Calixta Guiteras Holmes. Havana. 1905 to 1988. Cancuc and Chenalhó in Chiapas. Wrote Perils of the Soul (1961), in Spanish Los peligros del alma (1965). Field, ethnography. Remembered. Cuba. Source
• Oliver La Farge. Tulane University. 1901 to 1963. At Tulane from 1926 to 1928. Jacaltenango and Santa Eulalia. Also a novelist. Field, ethnology. Remembered. United States. Source
• Robert Redfield. University of Chicago. 1897 to 1958. PhD, Chicago, 1928. Chan Kom, with Alfonso Villa Rojas. Field, anthropology. Remembered. United States. Source

Also working from written records. Robert M. Hill II, Timothy Knowlton, Munro S. Edmonson, Don E. Dumond, and Grant D. Jones, on Historians.

For people who have died, the sort for working or not lists them by the year they died, most recent first. The country is where the person worked last. Still to find are Tzotzil and Tzeltal anthropologists with a firm source, and anthropologists from Belize and Honduras.

← Topics