Some Good Questions, but Large Inferences from Tidbits

Abstract: As is well known, the Book of Mormon is a brief spiritual account from many centuries of Lehite and Jaredite peoples. Some of its authors mentioned that the book contains very little (not even 1%) of what happened, especially of non-spiritual matters. Nevertheless, from the tidbits of information found in the book, many have deduced or speculated on aspects of Nephite, Lamanite, and Jaredite life, including where the events took place. In Book of Mormon Ecology, R. Kent Crookston analyzes agricultural, ecological, and physical information in the Book of Mormon and proposes that its peoples lived in a Mediterranean climate, not in Mesoamerica. Seeds from Jerusalem growing well in America, seasons of grain and fruit, and east winds have good connections to Mediterranean climates. His analysis raises pertinent questions about Mesoamerican models. However, many conclusions have a weak basis or do not consider other evidence strongly correlated to a Mesoamerican setting, including ecological factors. For other details, reasonable explanations also fit a Mesoamerican model. A definitive post-oceanic locale of Book of Mormon peoples remains elusive and controversial because of meager non-spiritual information in the book, multiple plausible interpretations of non-spiritual words, and insufficient archaeological data throughout the Americas. The post Some Good Questions, but Large Inferences from Tidbits first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.