Culture: Although it may be making too much of too little, this passage shows an interesting contrast with Benjamin’s dismissal of his people. Mormon described the earlier event:
And again, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of all these things, and had consecrated his son Mosiah to be a ruler and a king over his people, and had given him all the charges concerning the kingdom, and also had appointed priests to teach the people, that thereby they might hear and know the commandments of God, and to stir them up in remembrance of the oath which they had made, he dismissed the multitude, and they returned, every one, according to their families, to their own houses. (Mosiah 6:3)
In both cases, the king dismisses the assembly, appropriately so since a formal assembly requires a clearly marked conclusion. In both, the people return to their homes. Once again, this is logical, as many, if not most, of the people would live at some distance from the town’s ceremonial center. However, Benjamin’s people, but not Limhi’s, return home “according to their families.” As already noted, Mesoamerican kin groups typically lived near each other, creating family compounds. Why, then, do Limhi’s people simply go home without families being specified?
It is impossible to know whether this apparent omission reflects a truly different social structure and, even if does, whether it is significant or not. Certainly kinfolk continued to be important for Limhi’s people, but the people who came with Zeniff were not necessarily entire kin groups. The original settlers probably cut across family boundaries, giving them less well-defined kin structures. Additionally, the Limhites had reorganized after the assassination of their king and the collapse of his political/religious structure. Such restructuring may also have altered some kin organizations by removing or demoting some of them. In short, the Limhites may not have had strong extended kin-based compounds. They would certainly have had households for the nuclear family and near kin, but likely not the larger kin-group compounds that were more likely in the older Zarahemla.