Evon Z. Vogt Jr., 85; Anthropologist Was Authority on Maya

Evon Z. Vogt Jr., 85, an anthropologist and leading authority on the Maya Indians of Chiapas, Mexico, died May 13 of pulmonary fibrosis at a hospital in Cambridge, Mass., his family reported

Born in Gallup, N.M., Vogt financed his education at the University of Chicago by working in Nevada’s gold mines and as a U.S. Forest Service ranger. During World War II, he was a combat intelligence officer in the Navy. After the war, he returned to the University of Chicago, where he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology. His dissertation concerned the experiences of Navajo veterans used as “code talkers” to confuse the Japanese during World War II.

Vogt joined the Harvard faculty as an assistant professor of anthropology in 1948. He held a variety of positions in the anthropology department, including chairman, before retiring in 1990.

Beginning in the late 1950s, Vogt traveled to the state of Chiapas, where he studied the modern-day Maya. For 20 years, he and his family lived part of the year in a small village there with no running water.

Vogt wrote 19 books and received numerous honors, including the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest award the Mexican government bestows on foreigners.