{"id":75912,"date":"2019-07-11T09:29:40","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T15:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=75912"},"modified":"2019-07-11T09:29:40","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T15:29:40","slug":"pre-columbian-horses-in-the-americas-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/07\/pre-columbian-horses-in-the-americas-again.html","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Columbian Horses in the Americas, Again?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/a>
My wife recently took this nighttime photo of a baby tapir in the Peruvian Amazon. Presumably not a Baird\u2019s tapir, which is quite large, this one is probably either a \u201cTapirus terrestris\u201d (also variously known as a \u201cSouth American tapir,\u201d \u201cBrazilian tapir,\u201d \u201cmaned tapir,\u201d \u201clowland tapir,\u201d or \u201cAmazonian tapir\u201d) or a \u201cTapirus kabomani\u201d (also known as the \u201clittle black tapir\u201d or \u201ckabomani tapir\u201d).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the standard criticisms against the Book of Mormon, and one for which there have been decent responses but no definitive answer, stems from the eight episodes in the book that refer to New World horses before the arrival of Columbus. \u00a0These references range, chronologically, from Jaredite times\u00a0(Ether 9:19) to approximately 20 AD, which falls squarely during the era of the Nephites (3 Nephi 6:1).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem, of course, is that the overwhelming consensus view among modern historians, archaeologists, and biologists has held, and continues to hold, that horses in the sense that we understand the term today were brought over to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadores, who first arrived in the New World near the end of the fifteenth century AD, long after the destruction of the Nephites and the close of the Book of Mormon. \u00a0There have been one or two dissenting voices \u2014 notably\u00a0M.F. Ashley Montagu, \u201cTime, Morphology, and Neoteny in the Evolution of Man,\u201d\u00a0American Anthropologist <\/i>57\/1 Part 1 (February 1955) and\u00a0Yuri Kuchinsky, \u201cDid Native Americans Really Have the Horse Before Columbus?\u201d\u00a0Science Archaeology<\/em> \u2014 but they haven\u2019t managed to dislodge the majority opinion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Against that background, and largely accepting the consensus view that horses did not exist in the Americas in 1491, Latter-day Saint writers have commonly argued for one or two options without really settling exclusively on either one of them:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0The Book of Mormon\u2019s horses weren\u2019t actually Equus ferus caballus<\/em>, horses in the precise modern sense, but some other animal \u2014 e.g., perhaps Baird\u2019s tapir (Tapirus bairdii<\/i>) for which the compilers of the Book of Mormon simply used their equivalent of the word horse<\/em>. \u00a0The hypothesis (which is often ignorantly credited to me) has drawn considerable mockery in certain quarters, but parallel examples are easily found in linguistic history and anthropology \u00a0\u2014 e.g., the Amazonian tapir shown above is known locally by the mixed Spanish and Quechua name sachavaca<\/em>, which literally means \u201cbush cow\u201d \u2014 and it is both a reasonable and a plausible suggestion.<\/li>\n
  2. Horses were indeed extinct in the Americas by 1492, when the Europeans arrived. \u00a0But they had survived into Jaredite and Nephite times in small geographical pockets.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Late last night, a kind reader whose name I probably shouldn\u2019t cite here, lest he be dragged without his consent into the scorn, hate, and mockery that might well ensue \u2014 a nonmember of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> and, so far as I\u2019m aware, someone whom I have never met \u2014 generously called my attention to an extremely interesting article on the topic of Pre-Columbian horses in the Americas:<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u201cYes world, there were horses in Native culture before the settlers came: Yvette Running Horse Collin\u2019s recent dissertation, historical documents and oral histories present a compelling new story of the horse in the Americas\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    I will be very interested to see informed reactions to Dr. Collin\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    As matters currently stand, the article above should be read in conjunction with the information and links provided in\u00a0\u201cNew Evidence for Horses in America,\u201d<\/a> a short summary published by Book of Mormon Central.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    There is, incidentally, more in the works on this subject. \u00a0Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u00a0 \u00a0 One of the standard criticisms against the Book of Mormon, and one for which there have been decent responses but no definitive answer, stems from the eight episodes in the book that refer to New World horses before the arrival of Columbus. \u00a0These references range, chronologically, from Jaredite times\u00a0(Ether 9:19) to approximately 20 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPre-Columbian Horses in the Americas, Again?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    One of the standard criticisms against the Book of Mormon, and one for which there have been decent responses but no definitive answer,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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