The Book of Mormon and modern science, 1932, May 31.

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The Book of Mormon and modern science, 1932, May 31.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/557493140

Term paper for an anthropology class at the University of California, Berkeley. In it, Stewart compares references to the material culture of early inhabitants of North America in the Book of Mormon and several scientific publications, focusing on what he deems to be anachronistic references to agriculture, cattle and horses, and the wheel in the Book of Mormon. Stewart concludes that the Book of Mormon is "a story book ... [and] not true as a history." Also includes typescript copies of five letters relating to Stewart's paper : 1) a 1933 letter to Brother Boyce in Ohio from Westley Eiegler, who believes that more works of skepticism on the Book of Mormon should be published, although he criticizes Stewart's particular arguments; 2) an October 3, 1949, letter to Stewart from M.W. Stirling at the Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnology regarding the myth that the Smithsonian used the Book of Mormon as a scientific reference and that is was used to help Charles Lindbergh discover "lost Mayan cities;" 3) a copy of a February 24, 1949, letter from the Smithsonian's Frank H.H. Roberts to Athleston Crowson in which Roberts denies the claims mentioned by Stirling; 4) a letter from Stewart to LaMar Petersen (March 23, 1954) which accompanied a copy of Stewart's 1932 paper; and 5) a reply from Petersen to Stewart (April 13, 1954) in which Petersen concludes that the Mormon Church is a "very human institution ... made from a goodly mixture of idealism and fanaticism."

1 typescript : 13 p.

Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens

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SNAC Resource ID: 7711448

Related Entities

There are 5 Entities related to this resource.

Roberts, Frank H. H. (Frank Harold Hanna), 1897-1966

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k389wj (person)

Eiegler, Wesley,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hh92fq (person)

Stewart, Omer Call, 1908-1991

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63x90z1 (person)

Omer C. Stewart (1908-1991) was a leading expert on and advocate of American Indian culture. He received a Ph. D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1939. After returning from work in the War Department during World War II, Stewart founded the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he taught until his death in 1991. He received the Society for Applied Anthropology's prestigious Bronislaw Malinowski Awarad in 1983. From th...

Stirling, M. W.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66q4dw2 (person)

Petersen, LaMar, 1910-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zg983d (person)