The Jaredite Animals in the Land of Promise – Part I

A follow up to the previous post that introduces the animals which the Jaredites brought from Mesopotamia and their use in the Land of Promise.
    Obviously, since the middle east is mostly desert outside the narrow, curved, fertile crescent, the camel has always been the ideal mode of transportation and conveyance of goods, supplies, and products. The reason for this is partly found in the unique legs and feet of the camelid.

A camel’s feet are not hooves and are strongly adapted for the desert environment. The spreading toes help it not to sink in shifting sands while thick sole in a camel provides a hurdle against the summer sands, and saves the camel from being burned when it crosses the hot sand

A camel is an even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus, strictly adapted to desert movement. They have four large and specially designed feet, with each having two toes at the front, the bones of which are embedded in the foot. Each toe consists of a wide pad of flexible fibers and fats surrounded by a thick lathery cover. Camels do not have hooves, but each toe has a nail which is actually a partially formed hoof. When the thick, leathery pads of the foot hit the ground, the toes spread wide, creating a silent gait, and preventing the foot from sinking into the sand when walking or standing. These tough, leathery pads under their feet also allow camels to walk on rough, stony desert ground, which is quite common, especially in the northern Arabian Peninsula.
    The camel is nicknamed "the ship of the desert" because they walk like the motion of a rolling boat—they move both feet on one side of their bodies, then both feet on the other side, giving them an unusual gait. In addition, their thick coat reflects sunlight, which helps to keep it from overheating in the hot, dry deserts. The animal also has long legs that help keep their bodies farther away from the hot ground, allowing them to walk long distances across desert sands.
    As worthwhile and valuable the camel was to the Jaredites in both their Mesopotamian world, and in the trek to the sea that divided the land, they had only limited use in the Land of Promise, since whether one is looking at Andean South America, Mesoamerica, or the Heartland/Great Lakes in North America, there would be little sense in using a camel. On the other hand, there are certain areas where camels could not be used at all, and that is typically in the mountainous regions, as depicted in the scriptural record that saturated the Land of Promise: “There shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great” (Helaman 14:23). Even the earlier mountains that existed before this time in the land were tumbled into pieces (1 Nephi 12:4), or laid low, and became like valleys, the rocky terrain that had existed would still exist, just at lower or flat levels—that is the rocks now lad low and the rocks rent and the plains were broken up (1 Nephi 12:4), all of which would make footing difficult for a camel.

Camels were used for riding across the desert

Thus, along with the hooved flocks and herds they brought with them, they would have needed a beast of burden as versatile as a camel for transportation and conveyance. Thus we find that the Jaredites, who were husbandmen, a term that in Biblical times meant “farmer,” or “worker of the soil,” (Zechariah 13:5) and involved in animal husbandry (Genesis 4:2; 25:27), that is “a man of the field,” and “a keeper of animals.” Anciently, that also included breeding of animals—in fact, animal husbandry has from the beginning of time always been “involved with the domestication of, care for and breeding of animals, such as dogs, cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and other like creatures.” This included such things as “dog breeding,” and “beekeeping,” and “horse management,” which involved the development of selective traits, such as color, strength, behavior, speed, or other positive and necessary traits.
    All of this among the Jaredites led to the two animals described in the scriptural record as the curelom and the cumom (Ether 9:19). Now, the nature or type of animal these two were, we are not told, other than that they were on a par in value to the Jaredites (useful to man) as the elephant, and more so than the horse and ass (donkey). There were also “wild asses” in Biblical times (Asinus hemippus), a “swift and untamable animal,” equaling the speed of the gazelle, that frequented the deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia, and northern Arabia. The modern donkey spring from the wild ass known as the Asinus vulgaris, a much slower and docile animal called “hamor” in Hebrew, and was an “unclean” animal since it did not chew its cud, but made up a considerable portion of wealth in ancient times (Genesis 12:16;30:43).

Camels were used for carrying supplies, products and provisions across the desert 

So what animal do we find that is as valuable to man as the elephant, a beast of burden, used for transportation and conveyance, in the Western Hemisphere? Only in one location. First, though we might submit that Heartland theorists claim these two animals were the buffalo (of the Plains) and the wild mountain goat (of the Rocky Mountains). Neither of these, of course, meet the criteria stated in Ether. The buffalo has never been tamed nor domesticated, cannot be ridden nor used to convey burdens, such as a pack animal, and its only use to man is when it has been killed. The mountain goat, which is not a goat, but part of the antelope family, and found only in subalpine and alpine mountainous areas. It, too, has never been domesticated, cannot be ridden or carry burdens.
    Neither of these animals could be bred from the animals existing in Mesopotamia in Jaredite times!
    In addition, the Mesoamerican theorists point to the sloth, or giant sloth, and the tapir, though neither meets the criteria found in Ether. In fact, in looking at today’s sloth (something like a monkey) or a tapir (something like a pig) one hardly sees any similarity to the description in Ether. On the other hand, John L. Sorenson claims a “giant sloth” was involved—an animal the size of an ox, with long curved claws, likely an adaptation for foraging for grabbing branches and stripping foliage from tree limbs, as well as for protection from predators.
    The giant sloth (and today’s sloth) were and are endemic to South America, not Mesoamerica, with the giant sloth becoming extinct, according to paleontologists, 11,700 year ago. Hardly living during Jaredite times (2200-2100 BC). In addition, the giant sloth had large, lumbering bodies, with large hind feet, enabling them to stand on their hindquarters to reach high into trees for forage. No giant sloth was ever recorded or known to be domesticated, be ridden or carry burdens.

Left: Tapir, which prefers a moist, dense forests, in temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere (South America), and is an animal that can be domesticated and enjoys human contact, but can also be highly aggressive to both other animals and to humans, with a tendency to attack rather than retreat; Right: Sloth, which is a wild animal and are not domesticated, and are not to be held or touched by humans

The sloth known since that time is a small animal, arboreal (living in trees), and hardly an animal of any worth, which is also the description of the tapir, the latter being an animal that is related to the horse, donkey, zebra and rhinoceros, and claimed to have lived in the Oligocene, called tapirids, and were half the size of the present tapir. The current animal somewhat resembles swine and have a long, flexible snout, is nocturnal, and inhabit jungles and forest regions, spending a great deal of their time in rivers and particularly underwater, otherwise tend to wallow in mud pits.
    While both of these animals have worth to man, that worth is only after they are killed.
    In addition, while the sloth and tapir may well have been unknown to Joseph Smith, himself and his ancestors being farmers, who knew about most animals of their day, he certainly would have heard of the Buffalo and Mountain Goat. On the other hand, in South America, are two animals that are extremely well known to be of great worth to man, and have been for thousands of years, yet were completely unknown in North America until well into the 20^th century, more than a hundred years after the publication of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph’s death.

The camel was brought to the New World by the Jaredite, with which they bred to deve3lop the smaller, more durable in non-desert environments, and known as a camelid

These two animals are descendants of the camel, forming two sets of wild camelids, each having a domestic descendant. They are all indigenous to Andean South America, and while some have been imported into Central and North America and elsewhere, they are both known as, and were in fact, original South American animals.
    The original New World animals were the guanaco and the vicuna, from which descended both the llama and the alpaca—two animals with a very long history in Andean South America. They are native to the high puna of the South American Andes—a montane grassland and shrubland of the high central Andes, and specifically the regions of Ecuador, Peru, western Bolivia and Chile, as well as peripherally Argentina and Colombia.
    These two animals would have been bred by the Jaredites from the camels they brought to their land of promise, especially needed after finding the mountainous regions of the area and the difficulty camels would have had in the rocky terrain. These were the two animals mentioned in the Book of Ether that were unknown to Joseph Smith who used their Nephite or Jaredite names when translating the Plates.
(See the next post, “The Jaredite Animals in the Land of Promise – Part II,” regarding the development of the two animals mentioned in the Book of Ether and unknown to Joseph Smith when he translated the Plates)