Source:Peterson:To All the World:Economy and Technology:Silk

Peterson: "The 'silk' is unlikely to have been produced from silkworms as in China, but similar fabrics were known, at least in Mesoamerica"

Parent page: Book of Mormon/Animals/Silkworms

Peterson: "The 'silk' is unlikely to have been produced from silkworms as in China, but similar fabrics were known, at least in Mesoamerica"

Daniel C. Peterson:

"Silk and fine-twined linen" are mentioned (e.g., Alma 1:29; Ether 10:24) along with common (cotton?) cloth. The "silk" is unlikely to have been produced from silkworms as in China, but similar fabrics were known, at least in Mesoamerica. For example, in Guatemala fiber from the wild pineapple plant, and among the Aztecs rabbit hair, served to make silklike fabrics. Although flax apparently was not known in America prior to the arrival of the Spaniards (linen was made from flax in the Old World), several vegetable-based fabrics with similar characteristics are well attested in ancient America (Update, Nov. 1988).[1]

Notes

  1. Daniel C. Peterson, "Economy and Technology" in To All the World (2000)