Editing Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories (section)

=== Latter Day Saint movement's teachings ===
[[File:Izapa Stela 5.svg|right|thumb|upright|[[Izapa Stela 5]]]]
{{Main articles|Archaeology and the Book of Mormon|Genetics and the Book of Mormon|Native American people and Mormonism}}
The [[Book of Mormon]], a [[sacred text]] of the [[Latter Day Saint movement]], states that some ancient inhabitants of the New World are descendants of Semitic peoples who sailed from the Old World. [[Mormonism|Mormon]] groups such as the [[Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies]] attempt to study and expand on these ideas.

In a 1998 letter to the [[Institute for Religious Research]], the [[National Geographic Society]] stated that "Archaeologists and other scholars have long probed the hemisphere's past and the society does not know of anything found so far that has substantiated the Book of Mormon."<ref>[http://mit.irr.org/national-geographic-society-statement-on-book-of-mormon "National Geographic Society Statement on the Book of Mormon"]. August 12, 1998. Letter from Julie Crain addressed to Luke Wilson of the Institute for Religious Research.</ref>

Some LDS scholars hold the view that archaeological studies of the Book of Mormon's claims are not meant to vindicate the literary narrative. For example, [[Terryl Givens]], professor of English at the [[University of Richmond]], points out that there is a lack of historical accuracy in the Book of Mormon in relation to modern archaeological knowledge.<ref name="Givens2004">{{cite book|last=Givens|first=Terryl|title=The Latter-day Saint Experience in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IEEkTWyIpZkC&pg=PA145|access-date=November 8, 2014|year= 2004|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32750-6|pages=145–}}</ref>

In the 1950s, Professor M. Wells Jakeman popularized the belief that the [[Izapa Stela 5]] represents the Book of Mormon prophets Lehi and Nephi's [[tree of life vision]] and was a validation of the historicity of the claims of pre-Columbian settlement in the Americas.<ref>*{{aut|Brewer, Stewart W.}}, (1999); [http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=jbms&id=180 "The History of an Idea: The Scene on Stela 5 from Izapa, Mexico, as a Representation of Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040915054621/http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=jbms&id=180 |date=September 15, 2004 }}, (p. 12)</ref> His interpretations of the carving and its connection to pre-Columbian contact have been disputed.<ref name="Paulson2000">{{cite book|last=Paulson|first=Matthew A.|title=Breaking the Mormon Code|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pbi_OfkPhzwC&pg=PA236|access-date=November 8, 2014|year= 2000|publisher=WingSpan Press|isbn=978-1-59594-067-4|pages=236–}}</ref> Since that time, scholarship on the Book of Mormon has concentrated on cultural parallels rather than "smoking gun" sources.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lund|first=John|title=MesoAmerica And The Book of Mormon|date=November 22, 2007|publisher=Granite Publishing & Distribution|isbn=978-1891114403|pages=286}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Allen|first=Joseph|title=Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon|date=June 15, 1989|publisher=S.A. Publishers|isbn=9780842523936|pages=437}}</ref><ref name="Wirth2007">{{cite book|last=Wirth|first=Diane|title=Decoding Ancient America: A Guide to the Archaeology of the Book of Mormon|year= 2007|publisher=Horizon Publishers, an Imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc.|isbn=978-0882908205|pages=150–}}</ref>