Many Book of Mormon Geographies

[Phil Lurkerman]

The realization that the author truncated travel distances for the benefit of the story (or just didn't take the time to measure them and calculate travel times) has caused all of this unnecessary ruckus by people who insist on taking the book more literally than the guy who wrote it.

Hagoth has it exactly. I imagine JS looking at a map of the western hemisphere and thinking, "hmm...probably a day, maybe a day-and-a-half to walk across Panama? Meh...close enough."

[Hagoth]

I would like to propose what I call the Two Geographies Theory(tm)

I think Joseph Smith (or whoever wrote the BoM - it doesn't really matter) thought of the BoM geography at two levels.

First is the hemispheric model, which is used for the general description of the lay of the land: two large landmasses separated by a narrow neck, many waters up north, treeless place with cement(adobe) construction, etc. This model works generally for an overall map of the BoM lands, but it becomes problematic at the human scale. This requires a second level of geography.

Joseph didn't know much about the specifics of real-world locations beyond his own travels, so he drew upon local knowledge for many of the details: Lamanites fit the description of Iriqouis, BoM ditch/palisade fortifications resemble those found abandoned in the Eastern Woodlands, the crops and animals in the BoM coincide with those from Joseph's world, the river Sidon was probably modeled after a river that was familiar to Joseph, etc.

BoM apologists often marvel at the consistency of BoM geography in the use of words like up, across, etc. to describe peoples' travels, but all this really proves is that the author had a simple mental model of the relative locations of the places in his story, as any author would, and more or less stuck to it when talking about local movements across the terrain.

This second level of geography is why the Heartland folks find a familiar ring when they compare details of the BoM against the region of the country that was familiar to Joseph, and against Joseph's own identification of things like the Nephite Tower, Plains of the Nephites, Zelph, location of Cumorah/gold plates, and so on.

So, a simple, all-encompassing geography based on the map hanging in the schoolhouse, and a more localized (but still semi-fictional) landscape inspired by the author's own environment.

[Phil Lurkerman]

I would like to propose what I call the Two Geographies Theory(tm)

I think Joseph Smith (or whoever wrote the BoM - it doesn't really matter) thought of the BoM geography at two levels.

First is the hemispheric model, which is used for the general description of the lay of the land: two large landmasses separated by a narrow neck, many waters up north, treeless place with cement(adobe) construction, etc. This model works generally for an overall map of the BoM lands, but it becomes problematic at the human scale. This requires a second level of geography.

Joseph didn't know much about the specifics of real-world locations beyond his own travels, so he drew upon local knowledge for many of the details: Lamanites fit the description of Iriqouis, BoM ditch/palisade fortifications resemble those found abandoned in the Eastern Woodlands, the crops and animals in the BoM coincide with those from Joseph's world, the river Sidon was probably modeled after a river that was familiar to Joseph, etc.

BoM apologists often marvel at the consistency of BoM geography in the use of words like up, across, etc. to describe peoples' travels, but all this really proves is that the author had a simple mental model of the relative locations of the places in his story, as any author would, and more or less stuck to it when talking about local movements across the terrain.

This second level of geography is why the Heartland folks find a familiar ring when they compare details of the BoM against the region of the country that was familiar to Joseph, and against Joseph's own identification of things like the Nephite Tower, Plains of the Nephites, Zelph, location of Cumorah/gold plates, and so on.

So, a simple, all-encompassing geography based on the map hanging in the schoolhouse, and a more localized (but still semi-fictional) landscape inspired by the author's own environment.

Agreed. I think BoM geography is a situation where Ocam's Razor applies nicely. The simplest explanation that accounts for all the relevant issues is exactly as Hagoth outlines. Strong imagination, natural storyteller, limited experience and source material = BoM lands. No need to look beyond this.

[1smartdodog]

I think Joseph originally set out to write a fictional book. It just morphed into a historical account. What ever worked a the time, but it forced everyone to retrofit geography to fit a fictional narrative.

[moksha]

It would be fun to find out Lake Wobegon, Minnesota had been around since before the time of the Nephites, with the Norwegian farmers having traveled there following the destruction of the Tower of Bable. To compensate for the Tower's loss, they formed the town of Lake Wobegon and substituted Ralph's Pretty Good Groceries as its main edifice. Since its founding, Lake Wobegon has been a place where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average - much like Tooele, Utah.

[Hagoth]

It would be fun to find out Lake Wobegon, Minnesota had been around since before the time of the Nephites, with the Norwegian farmers having traveled there following the destruction of the Tower of Bable. To compensate for the Tower's loss, they formed the town of Lake Wobegon and substituted Ralph's Pretty Good Groceries as its main edifice. Since its founding, Lake Wobegon has been a place where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average - much like Tooele, Utah.

I understand that mass spectrometer analysis of ceramic vessels from a particular site in the region has yielded traces of Powdermilk Biscuit residue.