To what is the Book of Mormon referring when it mentions "cattle" in pre-Columbian America?

Question

Everyone knows there were no cows in America before the Europeans arrived. (Or horses or elephants, for that matter!)

For the record, lds123 is either mininformed (or lying) or is talking about something not widely reported in online media.

After some careful Googling, I determined that some camel-like bones were found in Arizona; they may be about 10,000 yrs. old. See

http://www.azcentral.com/blogs/index.php?blog=282&title=wal_mart_did_unearths_prehistoric_camel&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&blogtype=Bizblogs

I sincerely hope lds123 wasn't deliberately trying to mislead people.

Answer 1

Enos 1:21
And it came to pass that the people of Nephi did till the land, and raise all manner of grain, and of fruit, and flocks of herds, and flocks of all manner of cattle of every kind, and goats, and wild goats, and also many horses.

I already answered in your other question about elephants and horses, so here is my answer on cattle and goats.

Let's get the definition of cattle, shall we?
cat·tle /ˈkætl/
–noun (used with a plural verb)
1. bovine animals, esp. domesticated members of the genus Bos.
2. Bible. such animals together with other domesticated quadrupeds, as horses, swine, etc.
3. Disparaging. human beings.

So what is a bovine?
bo·vine /ˈboʊvaɪn, -vɪn, -vin/
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to the subfamily Bovinae, which includes cattle, buffalo, and kudus.
2. oxlike; cowlike.
3. stolid; dull.
–noun
4. a bovine animal.

Hate to break it to you, but while the common cow as we know it today in the USA are not known to have been around in pre-Columbian America, buffalo were. And buffalo can be tamed and kept in domesticated herds just like the common cow. So in fact, there were cattle in the Americas before the Europeans.

It is also very plausible that there was not an english equivalent to the animals that the Book of Mormon people were raising, so a familiar word was given to explain it. Matthew Roper wrote an article about how the goat raised by the Book of Mormon people and later native Americans may have actually, in fact, been a species of deer. The cattle could very well be a similar case. Read the full article here:
http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/display.php?table=insights&id=474

Answer 2

To all the momons who took the time and initiative to answer:

For christ's sake - Joseph Smith was referring to COWS, period. He didn't know sh!t from shinola about agriculture (the Smith family failed at farming) much less culture, especially Jewish.

He ignorantly assumed that anything he could buy in the general store was available 2000 years earlier.

Mastodons and mammoths bones have not yielded any dates later than 11,000 years ago, after the REAL ancestors of the native Americans arrived here. Other big mammals of the Pleistocene era (1.6 million - 10,000 years ago) died too: the sabre-tooth cat, the woolly rhinoceros, and the giant sloth. Funny the Jaredites and Nephites never mention them. Or maybe those are the elusive curelons and curoms critters?

Give me and the rest of the world friggin' a break. Quit trying to pass off your fantasyland historical tripe as fact. It makes mormonism look more mindless day by day.

Answer 3

You haven't followed the digs in Arizona on the property Wal_Mart bought, have you? Horse skeletons, thousands of years old. Sent to the local university.

The fact is, all the hard evidence is not yet in for both sides, but oh, how we all like to say it is.

And who would have thought of elephants having been in Switzerland!

Answer 4

It means cattle in the literal sense. To the contrary, there existed elephants, horses, and cows on the American continent long before they were supposedly discovered.\

Consider reading all of the book to learn the real message it contains. Curiosities are one thing, but the message to the world of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the primary force behind the Book of Mormon.

Answer 5

I don't mean to offend any mormans(I was one for 10 years) but after carfull consideration I don't believe that the book of Morman is real, THAT IS MY BELIEF, I believe that the only real book is the Holy one The Holy Bible

Answer 6

Resis, here about the Mark of the Laminites, they were bad so God gave them Dark skin, this was were the indians were suppose to come from. Jews tunred to indians, but no Jewish DNA, weird, hah?

Answer 7

Because the book of mormon is a piece of fiction.I use to be a strong believing mormon before i did serious research.It pained me to learn how i was lied to.

Apologists will give you many answers to your question,ofcourse they pull it from their asses and its BS.

There is just a hill of evidence that contradicts the claims of the book of mormon.To ignore it is just stupid and its dishonest.

Answer 8

Buffalo, perhaps?

Answer 9

So ..... Joseph Smith was lying!!? Whow...who saw that one coming? I DID I DID!!!!!