Nephite-Lamanite Population Expansion
By Alan C. Miner

The Ancient America Foundation (AAF) is pleased to present AAF Notes: a series of research articles by scholars of Book of Mormon culture and history and reviewed by AAF editors. Visit our Web site: http://www.ancientamerica.org.  This article is from Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon (unpublished), relative to Jarom 1.6, and citing excerpts from articles by V. Garth Norman and John Sorenson. Map by John F. Henderson, World of the Ancient Maya, p. 37

Jarom 1:6  And [the people of Nephi] were scattered upon much of the face of the land, and the Lamanites also.

Jarom makes the comment that not only the Nephites, but the Lamanites "were scattered upon much of the face of the land" (Jarom 1:6).  It is possible that by Jarom's time the Lamanite population had drifted much more toward the Nephite population, possibly to the extent of having a mixed population in some parts of the land (see Enos 1:20). 

According to Garth Norman, the Nephites had fortified many of their farming cities because the hostile Lamanites, who far outnumbered the Nephites, were also scattered upon much of the face of the land.  In this scenario, one can picture how the temple city center of Izapa, along with numerous others along the pacific slopes and highlands [of Guatemala], could have been built and controlled by Nephites, while large neighboring wilderness areas could have been the domain of Lamanites. 

Later on, after Mosiah's exodus from the land of Nephi to the land of Zarahemla, when the "more idle part of the Lamanites" still lived in the wilderness (Alma 22:28), one can also visualize how some of these temple centers could have become the synagogues of Lamanites under the control and influence of apostate Nephites (see Alma 21:1-11).  (Garth Norman, Archaeological Digest, Fall 1991, p. 16)

Although it is difficult to know exactly how far the "face of the land" extended during Jarom's time, one might wonder if Jarom's "land" extended into what would ultimately become the land of Zarahemla.  One might also wonder how much of this "land" became familiar to the Nephites before the exodus of Mosiah1.  (Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes)  

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Jarom makes a key comment that "they (the Lamanites) were exceeding more numerous than... the Nephites" (Jarom 1:6).  According to John Sorenson, this situation, that is the disproportionate growth in the population of the Lamanites, is so contrary to the record of human history that it cannot be accepted at face value. 

Typically, hunting peoples do not capture enough food energy in the form of game, plus non-cultivated plant foods they gather, to feed as large or as dense a population as farmers can.  Almost invariably, settled agriculturalists successfully support a population a number of times greater. 

It would be incredible for Lamanites living only under the economic regime reported by Enos to have supported the superior population he credits to them.  How can we explain their numbers?

Only one explanation is plausible.  The early Lamanites had to have included, or to have dominated, other people who lived by cultivation.  Their crops would have been essential to support the growth in overall "Lamanite" population.  Such a situation is not uncommon in history; predatory hunter/warrior groups often enough have come to control passive agriculturalists off whose production they feed via taxation or tribute.  After all, that is what the Lamanites later did to the Zeniffites, taking a "tax" of up to half their production (see Mosiah 7 and 9).  But this scenario works only if a settled, non-Lehite population already existed in the lands of promise when Lehi came.  (John Sorenson, When Lehi's Party Arrived, Did They Find Others in the Land?, in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, F.A.R.M.S., p. 26)

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