Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Animals/Horses/Loanshifting: deer and tapirs

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Loanshifting: Is the horse referred to in the Book of Mormon actually a deer or tapir?

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Questions

One of the items which critics love to mock is the idea that the "horse" referred to in the Book of Mormon might have actually been another animal, such as a deer or tapir.

Answer

It is important to remember that the Book of Mormon is not an ancient text--it's a nineteenth-century translation of an ancient text. When we, as modern readers, read texts from ancient or foreign cultures, we need to have an understanding of what the ancient or foreign author was attempting to convey. Some of the things that seem "plain" to us are not so "plain" upon further investigation or once we understand the culture that produced the text.

If real Israelites had lived anciently in the Americas and had left records in Hebrew about their lives, the tapir could very easily have been included into the word "horse." If 6th century B.C. Egyptians, or people who wrote with an Egyptian script, had lived in the Americas and had left records, they easily could have included the deer, tapir, and perhaps other animals into their expanded definition of "horse."

This article summarizes a subset of material found in Michael Ash, "Horses in the Book of Mormon," based upon a presentation given at the Book of Mormon Lands Conference, 20 October 2007.

What is "loan-shifting?

The term "loan-shifting" or "semantic extension" refers to a change in the meaning of an established native word in order to extend the number of things to which it applies. Loan-shifting has occurred throughout history. For example, when the Greeks first encountered a large unfamiliar animal in the Nile, they named it hippopotamus, which in ancient Greek means "river horse." ^[1] Anyone would agree that a hippo bears little resemblance to a horse, yet the Greeks chose to extend the use of the word "horse" to describe this new creature.

Likewise, when the conquistadors arrived in the New World, reintroducing the horse to the Americas, the natives had problems classifying these new animals. The reintroduced Spanish horse was unfamiliar to the Native Americans and so it became associated with either the deer or the tapir. When Cortes and his horses arrived,, the Aztecs simply called the unfamiliar horses "deer." ^[2] One Aztec messenger reported to Montezuma:

"Their deer carry them on their backs wherever they wish to go. These deer, our lord, are as tall as the roof of a house." ^[3]

Some of the Maya called the European horses and donkeys "tapirs" because, at least according to one observer, they looked so similar. ^[4]

The Spaniards likewise expanded the definition of some of their animal categories. They called the native tapir an "ass." ^[5].

If we find such loan-shifting in verifiable New World sources when the Native Americans and the Spaniards encountered unfamiliar animals, why do some critics think it is impossible that the Nephites would have acted any differently when they encountered unfamiliar items or had to identify different items with a limited written vocabulary? Perhaps the reformed Egyptian word for "horse" was expanded to include other animals that were in some way horse-like. The most likely animals to have been included in the expanded definition of the Book of Mormon "horse" are the deer and the tapir.

== Notes ==

1. [note] John Tvedtnes "Review of New Approaches to the Book of Mormon" in FARMS Review 6:1 (1994): 10.
2. [note] John Tvedtnes "Review of New Approaches to the Book of Mormon" in FARMS Review 6:1 (1994): 10.
3. [note] http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/contact/text6/mexica_tlaxcala.pdf
4. [note] John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1984), 293-294.
5. [note] Matthew Roper, "Unanswered Mormon Scholars," FARMS Review (1997) 9:1.