Item Detail
-
24553
-
8
-
0
-
English
-
Who Are the Children of Lehi? DNA and the Book of Mormon
-
Salt Lake City
-
Greg Kofford Books
-
"In Who Are the Children of Lehi? Meldrum and Stephens, professors and researchers, provide a solidly scientific guide for the layperson, beginning with the basics. The scientific method works by proposing testable hypotheses and eliminating those that are incorrect. But the scientific method cant falsify untestable hypotheses (for example, is there a Lehite genetic marker in the Americas?) nor can it prove a negative (for example, if we cant find Lehite DNA, then it never existed). They also explain the fascinating process of genetic inheritance itself, illuminating technical points with easy-to-grasp examples and using their own family histories to show how DNA sequence data captures only a fraction of the 1,024 ancestral slots on a ten-generation pedigree chart. This discussion lays the foundation for a fascinating overview of DNA studies on existing Native American populations, which does indeed confirm Asian origins for most current Native Americans sampled by such methods. However, that discussion leads to a sober analysis of the genocide that swept Native American populations with the arrival of Europeans. In vivid historical examples and reports of contemporary studies, the authors explain how simplistic assumptions about DNA survival must be qualified by the often drastic effects of swamping out, bottlenec ks, founder effects, genetic drift, and admixture. The result is a rich and complex view of the realities of genetic transmission. They also offer diffusionism, a hypothesis with mounting evidence of numerous transoceanic contacts, as an alternative to the crossing the Bering land bridge paradigm.In their conclusion, they return to the foundations laid out in their introduction: The ultimate issues of the veracity of the Book of Mormon record as it relates to Native American ancestry lie squarely in the arena of faith and personal testimonybeyond the purview of scientific empiricism. In the end, Lehis legacy is one of kinship through covenant, rather than through bloodlines or genes." [Abstract from book cover]
-
Essays on American Indian and Mormon History
For Zion: A Mormon Theology of Hope
In God’s Image and Likeness: Ancient and Modern Perspectives on the Book of Moses
Other Scriptures : Restoring Voices of Gantowisas to an Open Canon
Reinventing Lamanite Identity
Simply Implausible : DNA and a Mesoamerican Setting for the Book of Mormon
Sin, Skin, and Seed : Mistakes of Men in the Book of Mormon
The LDS Gospel Topics Series : A Scholarly Engagement