Pride Cycle

• "The Pride Cycle", lds.org

• "The Cycle of Righteousness and Wickedness", lds.org, Book of Mormon Student Manual, 2009, p. 414

• Pride Cycle, BoardGameGeek, 2007

• Lisa Torcasso Downing, "The Mormon Historical Narrative and the 200 Year Pride Cycle", Life Outside The Book of Mormon Belt, 5 May 2014

The interesting idea is introduced that there may be a "pride cycle" operating within the organization of the church. It may be worth investigating whether the Church is analogous enough to a government to support its own "Secular Cycle" from Structural Demographic Theory, or some other similar cultural cycle. It seems plausible.

It is also worth noting that despite her supposed study of early Mormon polygamy, her comments manifest great ignorance of fundamental principles of marriage, or at least, a surprising failure to apply those principles. This problem, however, seems to be very common. People seem very interested in studying polygamy to learn about it, but seem to skip over a real study of how the Lord looks at marriage, and hence, miss the foundational principles that are needed to make sense of the history.

• Peter Turchin, "Modeling Social Pressures Toward Political Instability", Cliodynamics, Volume 4, Issue 2

A model of political instability That describes how cycles of political unrest develop, which the author refers to as secular cycles. These are common to all peoples.

• Peter Turchin, "Intra-Elite Competition: A Key Concept for Understanding the Dynamics of Complex Societies", Cliodynamica: A Blog about the Evolution of Civilizations, 30 Dec 2016

Peter describes that the primary mode of instability in the theory the he expanded on from Jack Goldstone, is elite overproduction.

Notes

Nephi Kings

• Beginning: 2 Nephi 5 (588–559 B.C.)
  • Nephites and Lamanites establish separate competing monarchies. Nephite kings all named Nephi when they become king. Evidence suggests that the Lamanite kings all take the name of Laman as a sign of their kingship.
• Nephite Ending: Omni (240 - 180 B.C.)
  • The Nephi kings ended when Mosiah led the people out of the land of Nephi and discovered the people of Zarahemla. Their peoples united together, and Mosiah was chosen as the common king. The dating is a little hard, but appears to be at least two generations from the last date mentioned in Omni, which was about 280 BC. Perhaps some analysis of common intergenerational age gaps of the period would help tighten this up.
• Lamanite Ending:

The Reign of Mosiah Kings

• Beginning: Omni (240 - 180 B.C.)
  • The Nephi kings ended when Mosiah led the people out of the land of Nephi and discovered the people of Zarahemla. Their peoples united together, and Mosiah was chosen as the common king. The dating is a little hard, but appears to be at least two generations from the last date mentioned in Omni, which was about 280 BC. Perhaps some analysis of common intergenerational age gaps of the period would help tighten this up.
• Ending: Mosiah 29 (About 91 B.C.)
  • The younger Mosiah, son of Benjamin, establishes a more Republican government to replace his kingship consisting of a system of judges. Alma the Younger is chosen as the first chief judge.

The Judges

• Beginning: Mosiah 29 (About 91 B.C.)
  • The younger Mosiah, son of Benjamin, establishes a more Republican government to replace his kingship consisting of a system of judges. Alma the Younger is chosen as the first chief judge.
• Ending:3 Nephi 7:1-2 (About 30 A.D.)
  • Assasination of the chief judge during a time of great conflict leads to the breakup of the country into various smaller tribal government with a loose confederacy.

Tribes

• Beginning: 3 Nephi 7:1-2 (About 30 A.D.)
  • Assassination of the chief judge during a time of great conflict leads to the breakup of the country into various smaller tribal government with a loose confederacy.
• Ending: 4 Nephi (About 33 A.D.)
  • The appearance of Christ creates a new united government which remains at peace for many generations.

Christian Era

• Beginning: 4 Nephi (About 33 A.D.)
  • The appearance of Christ creates a new united government which remains at peace for many generations.
• Ending: 4 Nephi (About 230 AD)
  • Eventually conflict resumes and political division leads to the creation of two new distinct groups known as the Nephites and Lamanites.

Final Chapter

• Beginning: 4 Nephi (About 230 AD)
  • Eventually conflict resumes and political division leads to the creation of two new distinct groups known as the Nephites and Lamanites.
• Nephite Ending: Mormon 6 (About 385 AD)
  • Nephite wickedness grows great and internal conflict leaves them so weak that they are completely overrun by the Lamanites.
• Lamanite Ending: Beyond the scope of the record.

Cross-References

• Pride