Botany: Daniel Ludlow notes: “Although the equivalent of the word corn is used in some Semitic languages to refer to various types of cereals, including wheat, Joseph Smith would probably translate it here so it would be clear to the understanding of his readers in the United States. Thus, the ‘corn’ here is probably maize, which is frequently called corn in the Americas. It is not clear what crops are referred to by the titles of ‘neas’ and ‘sheum.’”
Sorenson explains that “sheum:”
… has recently been identified as “a precise match for Akkadian s(h)e’um, ‘barley’ (Old Assyrian ‘wheat’); the most popular ancient Mesopotamian cereal name.” The word’s sound pattern indicates it was probably a Jaredite term. This good North Semitic word was quite at home around the “valley of Nimrod,” north of Mesopotamia, where the Jaredites paused and collected seeds before starting their long journey to America (Ether 2:1, 3). (Incidentally, the form of the word as the Book of Mormon uses it dates to the third millennium B.C., when the Jaredites left the Near East. Later, it would have been pronounced and spelled differently.) Apparently the Nephite scribe could not translate it to any equivalent grain name, nor could Joseph Smith do so when he put the text into English. The plant and its name no doubt were passed down to the Nephites/Zeniffites through survivors from the First Tradition, just as corn itself was. Since the words barley and sheum were both used in the same verse (Mosiah 9:9), we know that two different grains were involved, but what “sheum” might specifically have been in our botanical terms we cannot tell at this time. Perhaps this was amaranth? [Amaranth seeds were a staple of Mesoamerican diet and used as the main ingredient in a type of bread.]
Culture: “Planting” not only relates the beginning of their important labor of self-sustenance but also states that they were continuing an agricultural lifestyle. Like most of Mesoamerica, the Zeniffites’ social model comprised the central services of the town and its surrounding farming areas.