For many years I have devoted time and energy to analyzing The Book of Mormon, especially to learn what it says about the ancient peoples it describes. One criterion I have striven to apply to my work is to be as attentive as possible to details in the text about the setting in which events in the scripture were played out. In that spirit my 1985 book, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, compared the internal picture of life in Book of Mormon times that I had derived from study of the text with the large body of data that scholars and scientists have accumulated about the area where the scriptural peoples probably dwelt. That is Mesoamerica (central and southern Mexico and northern Central America).
Since 1985, I have completed further studies along the same lines. A number of the writings that resulted have been published but have not been conveniently accessible to nonspecialists. Other pieces have not been published at all. This collection of papers makes available for general readers further materials that can increase their understanding of the Nephite record beyond what is available in An Ancient American Setting.
While some of my writing has featured comparisons with data from outside the scripture, these pieces consist almost entirely of internal analyses. I am of the opinion that it is important at this point in time for scholars to study the Nephite volume by analyzing its text intensively. Students of the ancient book need to put themselves as thoroughly as possible into Nephite settings and modes of thinking before trying to translate the ancient writings to modern-day terms.
