Sociological/Translation: Amulek is journeying to see a “very near kindred.” The phrase “very near kindred” is somewhat awkward, and bears the hallmarks of a translation of a term that Joseph might not have known. In a society base on kinship relations, it is most likely that there is a particular term that is being translated, but that it is somehow out of the range of standard English terms. In addition to the standard designations for the immediate family, there are frequently terms that indicate other types of relationships. This putative term would be contrasted to “distant kindred.” It is most probable that the audience had a good idea of the relationship of the two, and that it was outside of the immediate family, as Amulek would then have used the term “father/brother, etc.”
A possible model for the type of lineage term Amulek might have been using comes from the Nahuatl (Aztec) language. Carrasco has studied the Nahuatl kinship terms, and indicates that the system made distinctions between lineal and collateral kin. The term uecapan “distant” is used to mark the collateral kin (Carrasco, Pedro. “Sobre algunos terminus de parentesco en el nahuatl clasico,” In: Estudios de Cultural Nahuatl. 1966, 6:161). This was a flexible indicator that might be attached to many specific terms. It is possible that the language of Amulek had a similar marker that would mark the “distant” relatives as well as the “very near” kin.
It is also interesting that he is “journeying” to visit this person. This suggests the possibility that this “very near kindred” is not in the same city. While it is possible that Amulek was leaving the city and traveling to the “land” surrounding the city, this might not be considered a journey, but rather a more typical travel. Thus the journeying may be significant. From the standpoint of understanding the political relationships of the cities under the Nephite reign of the judges, this would indicate that lineages will not all be settled in the same place, and that perhaps one of the reasons for the political ties between cities is that there are lineage connections to the other cities under the Nephite umbrella.