The Nephites and the Lamanites have a complex history. They split, they merge, they have dissenters, they have converts, they split again…

In 4th Nephi they apparently completely merge and become just one people.  Then when they become wicked again they become Nephites and Lamanites again.  But it’s even more specific, they split into their individual varieties of Lamanites and Nephites–the old tribes that they used to belong to.

It’s tempting to view these new identities as just a LARP.  People just picked them, in other words.  But the prophecies from earlier in the book of Mormon about the eventual fates of the Nephites and the Lamanites, the descendants of Nephi and the descendants of Laman and Lemuel, suggest there is some actual continuity involved.

How is that possible, if they all were one people?

There may have been a racial component. Physical differences, even if subtle, would be a natural fault line for when things fall back apart.

Or there may have been some sort of continued difference in cultural practices that did not disappear during the period of unity because they were compatible with the gospel.  Different languages or even just different dialects or accents would do it.  We usually think that unity brings homogeneity and it does but only in the fallen world that we are familiar with where unity involves hegemony and commercial expansion.  it’s not clear that either one of those would happen in a gospel unity.

Or we should interpret descent from Nephi or descent from Laman as metaphorical.

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