Migrations Southward

Lehi prophesied that many of his descendants would be scattered and dispersed from their land of first inheritance (2 Nephi 1:11). Latter-day prophets and apostles from the days of Joseph Smith to the present day have affirmed that descendants of the people of Lehi may be found today throughout North and South America.¹ In another evidence summary, we discussed evidence for Mesoamerican migrations into the North American Southwest.² Additional evidence suggests that similar migrations and interactions repeatedly occurred between Mesoamerican and South America as well.

Cultural Interactions Between Mesoamerica and South America

In a survey of evidence for cultural exchanges between Mesoamerica and South America, John Sorenson noted, “archaeologists, ethnohistorians, and linguists in recent years have amassed data demonstrating beyond question that for at least four thousand years people, materials, and ideas have moved fluidly between the two American continents.”³

Contacts and cultural exchanges between Mesoamerica and South America appear to have been established from an early period. Anthropologist Stephen de Borhegyi and Mayanist Michael D. Coe argued that correspondences in pottery forms and techniques point to significant cultural interactions between the Pacific Coast of Guatemala and the Guayaquil region of Ecuador from 1200–600 BC.⁴ Coe asserted the only explanation for such correspondences “must be actual maritime contact between the people of the two areas.”⁵

Based on such evidence Emilio Estrada concluded that “linkages were so continuous that it would be better for Ecuador to be considered an integral part of Mesoamerican culture.”⁶ Allison Paulson argued that “from about 1500 B.C. until about A.D. 600, the inhabitants of the [Santa Elena] Peninsula [in Ecuador] were involved in a network of maritime trade with certain parts of Mesoamerica.”⁷

According to Betty Meggers, “by 200 B.C., and perhaps earlier, Mexican types of figurines, pottery masks, flat and cylindrical stamps, and distinctive types of pottery decoration such as post-fired painting in lime green, yellow, black, white, and red appear with great abundance in sites ranging from Manabi into southern Columbia.”⁸ Evans and Meggers observe,

The better known the archaeological record becomes, the more apparent is the conclusion that contact must have repeatedly taken place between Mesoamerica and the west coast of South America. Beginning in the early Formative period communication was probably at first random and accidental, but in the centuries just prior to the arrival of Europeans it appears to have become planned and continuous.⁹

Patricia Reiff Anawalt, an authority on pre-Columbian clothing, has shown that South American styles, designs, and techniques which were only present in Ecuador from 1500 BC until just before Spanish contact are portrayed in sixteenth century west-Mexican codices and figurines from Nayarit tombs from more than a thousand years earlier.¹⁰

Based upon this evidence, she suggests that Ecuadoran merchants frequently traveled to and from West Mexico and that those portrayed in codices and figurines with this distinctive clothing represent individuals that were part of “trading colonies of southern merchants who then stayed on permanently.”¹¹ Additional correspondences in ceramics, metallurgy, and burial practices between Ecuador and Western Mexico suggest that at times these cultural exchanges were significant.¹²

In 2019 a symposium was held in Washington D.C entitled Waves of Influence: Revisiting Coastal Connections Between Pre-Columbian Northwest South America and Mesoamerica.¹³ The proceedings which currently await publication reflect the ongoing work of scholars as they address the evidence for and the significance of cultural interchanges between the two continents.

Conclusion

Evidence for pre-Columbian contacts, trade, and migrations between Mesoamerican and South America may help explain how descendants of Book of Mormon peoples could have spread into regions south of Mesoamerica, just as they likely spread into many parts of North America. Such evidence, however, has only become known over the last century. These recent findings are consistent with the message of the Book of Mormon, whose prophecies and promises apply to the remnant of Lehi’s people throughout North and South America and many islands of the sea.¹⁴

John L. Sorenson, “Mesoamericans in Pre-Spanish South America,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1992), 215–217.

2 Nephi 1:112 Nephi 10:21

2 Nephi 1:11

2 Nephi 10:21