He was a leading expert of Mayan language, culture, and arts, best known for his definitive translation of the Mayan text, Popul Vuh, for which he was awarded the PEN translation prize.
[3] In 1986, he won the PEN Translation Prize for his book Popul Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life,[4] and in 1997 was the joint recipient of the American Anthropological Association President's Award, along with his wife, Barbara Tedlock.
[2] He was editor of 3 academic journals, including the flagship publication of the American Anthropological Association.
[6][3] Tedlock was a proponent of dialogical anthropology, seeking to give indigenous peoples more input into the Western academic work written about their culture and practices.
[7] For his translation of the Popul Vuh, he consulted with Maya K’iche’ daykeeper, Andrés Xiloj.