Item Detail
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32116
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2
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1
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English
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Nephite Daykeepers : Ritual Specialists in Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon
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Interpreter : A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
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2020
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38
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Provo, UT
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Interpreter Foundation
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291-306
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"Mark Alan Wright describes a common type of ritual specialist among the Maya called a 'daykeeper.' He discusses similarities and differences with descriptions of ritual specialists in the Book of Mormon, including those who used the Urim and Thummim, performed rituals of healing, experienced near-death episodes at the inauguration of their calling, kept track of calendars, mastered astronomy, and invoked God to bring rain. He finds several intriguing similarities, but also differences — the most important one being that the Nephites understood that the power to do all these things came from the God of Israel rather than the local pantheon." [Article Abstract]