Interactions with Non-Israelite Populations in the Book of Mormon

			As with the Bible, a study of the Book of Mormon can easily focus on religious concepts, or may delve into questions of the historical contexts of the narrations in the text. This paper is an examination of one aspect of the historical context of the Book of Mormon. In particular, the issue is the relationship that did or did not exist with non-Israelite populations in the New World. It cannot survey all of the evidence, but will provide a foundation for discussion of the evidence and the nature of that evidence. Initial Assumptions To begin such a discussion, it is imperative that the operational assumptions are made explicit. The first is that, while the dating in the Book of Mormon should be subjected to some minor corrections for calendrical systems (see, as an example Spackman, Randall. "The Jewish/Nephite Lunar Calendar." Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. 7:1:48-59, 1998), for general purposes of correlation to known archaeology, the gross dating of the Book of Mormon should be accepted and used for comparative purposes. Second, the Book of Mormon took place not only in time, but in space. The question, of course, is where that "space" was. This analysis uses the Limited Tehuantepec theory as outlined in John L. Sorenson's An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (FARMS 1985). While other similar theories are available, this one has ample documentation, and is readily available to those who might want to check some of the geographic correlations that underlie this analysis. Briefly, that correlations places the events of the Book of Mormon in an area known as Mesoamerica, roughly correlating to Guatemala on the south up to perhaps Mexico City on the northern extremes. For students of the Book of Mormon, this area has the great advantage of not only plausibly fitting the geographic descriptions in the Book of Mormon, but has also been the subject of intense scholarly study from a completely non-Book of Mormon perspective. Thus we have comparative data that make the analysis attempted in this paper possible. Third, and last, if the Book of Mormon takes place in a particular time and space, then it is reasonable to assume that the known history and culture of that time and place will be represented in the Book of Mormon. In particular to the question at hand, whether or not there were non-Israelites in the Book of Mormon, the archaeology tells us the answer long before we begin to consult the Book of Mormon on the issue. At the time the Book of Mormon has Lehites landing on the coast of the New World (the Guatemalan coast in Sorenson's analysis), the newly landed party would have been hard pressed to avoid contact with the non-Israelite populations that were already in the area. In Mesoamerican archaeological chronologies, the timeframe for the entry of the Lehites is the Middle PreClassic, or the Middle Formative. Particularly important for our view of the social environment of the early Lehites are the coastal areas, as that is certainly where the party would have landed. In this context, it should be noted that the Middle Formative time period is when there is a fluorescence of populations centers on the coastal regions of Mesoamerica. Most important, however, is the size of those units: "Villages were not necessarily larger, but simply more numerous." (Weaver, Muriel Porter. The Aztecs, Maya, and their Predecessors. Seminar Press, 1972. P. 44). The fact that the villages were more numerous suggests a greater difficulty of the Lehites landing and finding an area in which they were completely alone. The probabilities that they encountered other people soon after their landing are very close 100% based on the probable archaeological evidence alone. Joyce Marcus examined the population sizes of several Mesoamerican regions and classified them as to size. Her only data for the Guatemalan coast comes from the time period of 1350-850 BC, which is sufficiently earlier than Book of Mormon times to expect that populations would have been higher when the Lehites arrived. At that early point, she surveys 7 sites and finds them ranging from a single household (which may have multiple family members) to perhaps 12 households (Marcus, Joyce. "The Size of the Early Mesoamerican Village." In: The Early Mesoamerican Village. ed. Kent V. Flannery. Academic Press, 1976, p. 85). Data for a different region, but closer to the appropriate time range (850-550 BC) provided a sampling of 26 sites in the Valley of Mexico (the extreme northern end of the Book of Mormon geographic model - but likely a reasonable comparison for sizes of population to the Book of Mormon area). These sites range from hamlet (10-75 households) to village (90-300 households) with a single site with 600-1200 households. Of all of the sites, 22 were in the "hamlet" range of population or 10-75 households. (Marcus 1976, p. 80-81). Depending upon the accuracy of the use of "village" for the description of the coastal areas as indicated above, these data suggest that when the Lehites arrived in the New World, they could have found multiple population sites ranging from 10 households on the small level to perhaps 300 on the larger size, with the smaller populations predominating. Our operating assumption must be, therefore, that the Book of Mormon had to have encounters with non-Israelites early, and unavoidably thereafter. From this base it is a question of the nature of the interactions and their effect upon Book of Mormon narrative. Encountering "others" in the text The obvious initial issue that should be addressed is the clear conflict between the inevitability of finding "others" and the equally clear lack of specific mention of "others" in the Book of Mormon narrative. They must have met them, but do not seem to mention them. How is that possible? The answer to this question lies in two important aspects of the Book of Mormon narrative. The first is the nature of the source we have for the crucial time period during which we would expect the greatest mention of the encounter with "others;" the record of the arrival in the New World. This event is recorded in 1 Nephi 18:22-25 and consists of a frustratingly terse account of arrival and beginning with the necessities of life. The next narration, 19: 1-6 describes Nephi as a record keeper, and gives an account of the creation of two records, of which the current account is the second and clearly written later. This second set is not begun until thirty years after the departure from Jerusalem (therefore at least twenty one years in the New World) and after the separation of the Nephites from the Lamanites and the establishment of a new village. Both the time frame of the writing and the explicit statement of purpose in writing (from 1 Nephi 19:1-6) suggest that mention of "others" was simply not a priority. Indeed, by the time of the writing, it may have already been an assumed reality, as will be noted later. The last issue for the Book of Mormon text is the absence of any specifically named "others." The issue here is the nature of polity naming in the Book of Mormon. It is frequently assumed that Book of Mormon terms are lineage related. While there are lineage terms, gross lineage terms become polity labels rather than kin labels, and this process begins very early in the Book of Mormon: "Jacob 1:13-14 Now the people which were not Lamanites were Nephites; nevertheless, they were called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites. 14 But I, Jacob, shall not hereafter distinguish them by these names, but I shall call them Lamanites that seek to destroy the people of Nephi, and those who are friendly to Nephi I shall call Nephites, or the people of Nephi, according to the reigns of the kings." Jacob is clearly tying the label of Nephite to the polity rather than the lineage. This process continues through the Book of Mormon where Nephite is the descriptor of the people in the city of Zarahemla, even though the larger population were lineally separate from the Nephites (the people of Zarahemla are called Mulekite in LDS literature even though that term is never used in the Book of Mormon itself). In a similar fashion, the term "Lamanite" may refer to a lineage, but is more typically a polity ("I shall call them Lamanites that seek to destroy the people of Nephi"). As a result of the use of kin labels as polity labels, we have a lack of clarity in discovering "others" in the Book of Mormon, even though the time and space tell us that they must be there. The question now becomes one of finding the evidences for the presence of these "others-non-Israelites" inside the text of the Book of Mormon. Internal Evidences of "Others" Does the text lend any credence to the idea that "others" had come into the Lehite colony early? Certainly there is nothing that speaks clearly to that fact, but there is an important possibility where the most logical explanation of the text rests squarely on "others." Nephi describes the flight of the flight of his family and those who would follow him from the machinations of Laman and Lemuel: 2 Ne. 5:5-9 5 And it came to pass that the Lord did warn me, that I, Nephi, should depart from them and flee into the wilderness, and all those who would go with me. 6 Wherefore, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did take my family, and also Zoram and his family, and Sam, mine elder brother and his family, and Jacob and Joseph, my younger brethren, and also my sisters, and all those who would go with me. And all those who would go with me were those who believed in the warnings and the revelations of God; wherefore, they did hearken unto my words. 7 And we did take our tents and whatsoever things were possible for us, and did journey in the wilderness for the space of many days. And after we had journeyed for the space of many days we did pitch our tents. 8 And my people would that we should call the name of the place Nephi; wherefore, we did call it Nephi. 9 And all those who were with me did take upon them to call themselves the people of Nephi. The important information lies in verse 6. Nephi names those who leave, including "all those who would go with me." When we account for the named or mentioned individuals, there is very little room for "all those who would go." In fact, using mentioned people and their logical progeny, the only ones clearly unaccounted for in the division are the sons of Ishmael. Regardless of where they are placed (as staying with the Lamanites or going with Nephi), it would certainly seem that if "all those who would go" were only one or two people, we would expect that Nephi might make mention of them, at least by their head of household, as he does for the families of Zoram, Sam, Jacob, and Joseph. It is rather unlikely that any of the spouses chose to split into a clan separate from their spouses (and indeed the Book of Mormon has the wives of Laman and Lemuel following their lead - while the other wives are not specifically mentioned in alliance.) The best hypothesis, then, to explain Nephi's inclusion of "all those who would go" is that it referred to those of the hamlet (or perhaps hamlets?) that had joined with the Lehites, and in recognition of the greater social and technological sophistication of the newcomers, would have permitted them to occupy roles of leadership over their hamlet as exchange for the new knowledge they brought with them (if not, in fact, some of the goods themselves). Indeed, Nephi's descriptions of "his people" begin very early to have the appearance of more than the named individuals, if only in the descriptions of the activities mentioned. From the earliest descriptions of the activities of the people of Nephi, comparisons to anthropological populations suggest that more people were required for those functions than those who were named in Nephi's list of those who departed with them. The combination of archaeological evidence, anthropological analogy, and internal text suggests that there was a joining with one or more of the hamlets that were on the Guatemalan coast, and that this connection began even before the separation of the Nephites and Lamanites in the Book of Mormon text. Thus we have a larger population in the village of Nephi that could possibly be supported by the original immigrants alone, and this population expansion continues throughout the Book of Mormon. While this early combination of Israelite and non-Israelite populations into a new Nephite polity is not clearly stated, it becomes the basis for understanding the text of the Book of Mormon itself. The most interesting example of where this combined population provides a simple explanation for an otherwise inexplicable narrative scene comes in Nephi's inclusion of a sermon by Jacob (2 Nephi 6-11). The setting of this discourse is an explicit request by Nephi (by this time established as king - a fact that alone suggests a larger population, being only ten years after their separation from the Lamanites) to speak on particular passages from Isaiah. The Isaiah passages deal with the salvation of Israel by the Gentiles, and Jacob emphasizes the value of the Gentiles to Israel. It is, of course, possible to analyze this discourse is purely unconnected terms - purely religious terms. In the context of an historical people, however, that would be a mistake. Why should any New World prophet spend any amount of time talking about the ultimate salvation of Israel by the Gentiles, when that event was long distant from the current population, and dealt with peoples a world away? Seen only in the context of the Old World Isaiah, this is a strange discourse. However, seen in the context of a new community attempting to incorporate a larger population of non-Israelites into the Nephite polity, that discourse suddenly makes tremendous sense. It explains clearly why the political leader would dictate those particular passages, and provides a contemporary context that explains both the text and the elaboration by Jacob, as well as the very critical social context that would see that sermon as an important point in the Nephite social development. Another critical marker of the interaction of the Nephite polity with "others" is indicated in the nature of the economic development of the early Nephite village/city. Jacob gives a sermon decrying some of the developing sins of his people which deal with riches. Jacob's distress is not over the accumulation of goods, but the social segregation that it is costing. Notice the particulars of his complaint in Jacob 2:13: " and because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel, and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they." Jacob's problem is in their pride and the supposition of superiority held by those who are wealthy. Jacob's indicator of that wealth is "costliness" of apparel. This gives us yet another economic problem. How do we get costly apparel in a relatively small village? Indeed, in an economy with no money, and no stores, how can we even determine what "costly" means? In an ancient village, we must suppose that the village would need to be as self-sustaining as possible. In addition to raising sufficient food to feed their own population, they will need to make their own dwellings (as well as cooperate on public edifices). In addition, one would suspect that they would make their own clothing. Once again we enter the realm of raw materials. What is available to one is available to all. If all are making their own clothes, and all have access to the same raw materials, how could some garments be more "costly" than others? The only answer in ancient Mesoamerica is trade. Only in the exchange of goods between communities can we begin to make sense of Jacob's evidences. It is very likely that many different types of goods were traded, as trade creates social networks and extended bonds that are as important as the trade goods themselves (Radin, Paul. The World of Primitive Man. London, Abelard - Schuman. 1953, p.130). Throughout the Book of Mormon, a particular set of traits will become locked together as examples of the antithesis of the Nephite social ideal. One of the easiest markers of that set (which includes kings, social stratification, not working with one's hands) is the "costly apparel." Not only does this costly apparel most likely originate in a community separate from the Nephites, it appears to be tied to the developing cultural complex that will become known as the Maya culture. Mesoamerican was not a monetary economy, but one built on barter. Thus the accumulation of wealth has very different meaning for the ancient peoples than it does for a modern population. Mesoamerican archaeology divides the time periods of Maya culture into various stages, which do not precisely overlap with the major events in Book of Mormon history, since the periods are described by general cultural developments. The particular time period of the events at the end of the reign of Mosiah II and the beginning of the reign of the Judges falls into the Late Preclassic Period, roughly dated from 400 B.C. to A.D. 250. John S. Henderson provides a general picture of the overall world into which the Book of Mormon might plausibly be placed at this point in time: "Although some parts of the Maya world-mostly in the highlands-were firmly tied into the economic networks and related patterns of interaction of the Olmec world, centered to the west on the Gulf Coast, most early Maya communities, especially in the lowlands, were small, simple, egalitarian villages. By the end of the Middle Preclassic period, after 500 B.C., communities like Mirador were beginning to reflect a new developmental trajectory. Jewelry and other goods made from exotic raw materials indicate increasing prosperity, expanded economic ties to distant regions, and sharper differences in wealth and social status; large-scale, elaborately decorated public buildings reflect the emergence of powerful permanent leaders, chiefs or kings. These trends continued and intensified during the Late Preclassic period, setting the fundamental patterns of Classic-period Maya city-states. The most distinctive features of political art and propaganda that would typify Maya states of the Classic period appeared first at Abaj Takalik and other towns in the highlands, the adjacent piedmont and coastal zones, and throughout the Intermediate Zone. Stelae with relief carvings that depicted rulers in elaborate dress, studded with emblems of their office, also bore hieroglyphic texts recording their names, biographical details, and great deeds in the context of the Long Count calendar (Fig. 5-4). Standing before public buildings, often paired with altars, these monuments reinforced the power of the lords both by highlighting their genealogical and supernatural connections and by celebrating the fact of their offices. Some aspects of this dynastic political art can be found in towns scattered across the Maya lowlands, where it would reach its full elaboration, in the Late Preclassic period. But there is no evidence of the full pattern - notably, monuments with texts that include Long Count dates - until the Classic period." (Henderson, John S. The World of the Ancient Maya. Cornell University Press, 1997, pp. 87-88). Notice in Henderson's description of the developing kingdoms of the Maya the undercurrents that flow parallel to the issues that concern Jacob in the Book of Mormon. The kingdoms are increasing in power and influence - and wealth. Note that the wealth was described as jewelry of exotic raw materials. In the monumental art of these people, one of the things that stands out is the elaborate dress of the kings. Our final cultural tie to this larger Mesoamerican trend comes in the nature of displays of wealth: " The Maya used commodities both in their raw state and as worked objects for money. These currencies included jade and other green stones; flint and obsidian, in both worked and unworked forms; other precious stones and minerals; spondylus (spiny oyster) shells; cacao beans; lengths of cotton cloth, both in plain weave and made into clothes; spices; measures of sea salt; birds and their feathers; animal pelts; forest products such as dyes, resins, incense, and rubber; wood in both worked and unworked form; and ceramics, especially beautifully painted elite wares. People at all levels of society used these currencies within their communities as well as in the markets and fairs. Farmers and villagers could use their crops and handicrafts to barter for or buy other goods for use in their daily lives or in special rituals, such as marriages, funerals, and house dedications. People throughout Mesoamerica wore these currencies as jewelry and clothing to display the wealth and enterprise of their families."(Schele, Linda, and Peter Mathews. The Code of Kings. Scribner, 1998, p. 19). In this world where there were no banks, there were no stores, and there was no universally accepted currency, value was in trade, and the way one could show their wealth was by wearing it - precisely the issue that Jacob has with some of his people only a relatively few short years into their Mesoamerican experience. Costly apparel becomes, in the Book of Mormon, a part of a complex of cultural items that indicate the adoption of the culture and values of the outside Mesoamerican world. Among those values are social stratification and separation. In the Mesoamerican world around the Nephites, social class was maintained through the visual displays of relative wealth, as well as the differentiation by class where the upper classes need not labor with their own hands for food, but were supplied by right. The religious/historical narrative of the Book of Mormon has a continuing preoccupation with the influx of a particular set of ideas that are seen as destructive to the Nephite belief system and way of life. These ideas are continually noted as part of the above mentioned complex, and fit precisely as a description of the emerging Maya way of life during precisely the same time period. Thus the known cultural background of Mesoamerica at this time period provides the precise backdrop for the conflicts mentioned in the Book of Mormon, even if these opposing ideas are never labeled Maya - and indeed are rarely even identified as Lamanite, though the Lamanites noted in the Book of Mormon clearly follow this cultural tradition. One of the texts on the Book of Mormon that clearly depends upon friendly relations with peoples who are not specifically Nephites is the appearance of Sherem noted in the Book of Jacob. Jacob notes Sherem's self-introduction: Jacob 7:6 "And it came to pass that he came unto me, and on this wise did he speak unto me, saying: Brother Jacob, I have sought much opportunity that I might speak unto you; for I have heard and also know that thou goest about much, preaching that which ye call the gospel, or the doctrine of Christ." Both from Sherem's words and the way Jacob describes the encounter, we have the very clear impression that Sherem and Jacob had never met before. Given the probable size of the Nephite community at this point in time, it would have been impossible for Sherem to have been a member of the community and not have met Jacob prior to his adulthood. Sherem, of necessity, comes from outside the Nephite community. Conclusion Understanding the Book of Mormon as an historical document requires that it be understood in a particular place and time. While the text does not obviously delineate populations of non-Israelites, and it is certain that many LDS interpreters have historically attempted to make the Nephites and Lamanites the exclusive populations of the New World, it is also clear that neither the archaeology of the New World, nor the text of the Book of Mormon itself will allow that simplistic assumption. The text has its own reasons for not being clear about the role of non-Israelites in the development of its narratives, but the presence of such peoples is implicit in virtually all aspects of the development of the text, both in the descriptions of the population numbers and more difficult to find cultural markers. When the Book of Mormon does indicate the presence of non-Israelites as has been analyzed in this paper, it does so in terms which are consistent with the time and place suggested as plausible for the Book of Mormon. When the Book of Mormon deals with the nature of wealth and trade, those concepts are treated in ways that fit the known Mesoamerican context for that time period rather than any economic model from any other location or time. Similarly, conceptions of land possession (not discussed here) have a similar connection to a Mesoamerican model rather than any other time or place. Archaeologically, it would be impossible for the Book of Mormon to have taken place any where it might plausibly be place, but particularly impossible in a Mesoamerican context, where "others" were not present. When the internal evidences for the presence of "others" in the Book of Mormon are analyzed, they consistently improve the historical and cultural reading of the text, and consistently fit themes and issues into a timeframe consistent with the cultural developments of Mesoamerica. The Book of Mormon may not specifically mention the non-Israelites, but it cannot be properly understood without their presence.
			by Brant Gardner. Copyright 2001