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Your article makes the repeated Nephite apostacy a little less mysterious. I wonder if it would possible to expand the study to include other possible Nephite neighbors, or do you have some reasons you have not revealed for focusing on the Mayan culture?
The selection of the Maya as the plausible neighbors is the result of other work placing the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica. That directed our focus to that region as opposed to, for example, the Mississippian cultures.
As a personal opinion (I haven’t consulted with Mark on this) I suspect that since Lamanite incursions always come from the south and Nephite apostates who leave head to Lamanite country in the south, the more dominant ideas affecting the Nephites in Zarahemla came from the peoples to the south. That would be Maya culture.