Of course, their evidence occurs some 800 years later than Jacob’s discourse and focuses on politically important captives, but the evidence suggests that these later conditions grew out of similar practices dating to as early as the Nephite beginnings. Although the Classic Maya took captives for sacrificial value, Jacob assumes that ransom is an option for captured Nephites. It seems reasonable that militarism was more significant in early Nephite experience than appears on the small plates; certainly, warfare becomes much more important in the later account condensed from the large plates.