Anthropological: The blessing of Alma gives us an interesting picture of how Amulek perceives his kinship lines. While the information is not as detailed as we might like, we can still make some inferences. First we have a structural division in the sentence that separates a list of kin from the generic “all my kindred.” In structure, the sentence is progressing from named sets to a generalized set of kindred, with “all my kindred” being the largest and most inclusive category. The conjunction “yea” appears to extend the specifics of the first set of named categories. It is possible, therefore, that the blessing of Alma on the household is direct and immediate for the first set, and indirect for the second extended set, the “all my kindred.”
It is quite possible that this second set, “all my kindred” is not as ill defined as we consider it in a modern society. Among the Aztecs, there were certain penalties that could be applied to all of ones relatives (Las Casas, Bartolome de. Apologetica Historia Sumaria. Ed. Edmundo O’Gorman. Universidad Autonima de Mexico 1967, 2:401). For a penalty to be assessed upon all of ones relatives, there had to be a definition of what “all” meant, and it was either to the fifth or the fourth generation, depending upon the source (see Munoz Camargo, Diego. Historia de Tlaxcala. Mexico, 1947, p. 95 and Calneck, Edward E. “The Sahagun Texts as a Source of Sociological Information.” In: Sixteenth-Century Mexico. Ed. Munro S. Edmonson. University of New Mexico Press, 1974, p. 200). Although the Aztecs are a different language and time, it is probable that the same necessities of defining a maximum kin group would also have dictated Amulek’s concepts of what “all my kindred” might mean.
The first set is more interesting. Once again it is important to pull apart the sentence because there are terms and relationships that are important for kin relationships. The first is “my house.” For kin based societies, this typically as much real as it is symbolic of the family. Kin based societies frequently live in compounds where related family members live. There are excellent materials that allow anthropologists to have a picture of some Aztec households close to the time of the Conquest. For the Aztecs, the “family” was termed “techan tlaca” or “the people of one’s house.” One account from 1580 indicates that houses typically contained six or seven married couples besides unmarried youth (Casteneda, Francisco. “Official Reports on the Towns of Tequizistlan, Tepechpan, Acolman, and San Juan Teotihuaca.” Tr. Zelia Nuttal. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. 11:2:55).
The archaeological discovery of living areas that clearly contain multiple buildings lead archaeologists to the conclusion that such an area was a family compound. This is a very common feature of the archaeological sites of the Maya area dating to the time period of the Book of Mormon. A simple example is the site of Salinas La Blanca, which predates the Book of Mormon Nephites, that has examples of two household mounds with multiple thatched houses, one with three houses, and one with four (Flannery, Kent V. “The Early Formative Household Cluster on the Guatemalan Pacific Coast.” In: The Early Mesoamerican Village. Academic Press, 1976, p. 32). It is therefore most probable that Amulek is living in a typical Mesoamerican household compound. Thus when Amulek speaks of Alma blessing his “house” and then lists specific peoples, we are justified in assuming that these are people that are living in the same “house,” which would mean the entire dwelling area, not a single structure.
Amulek gives the following series as the people associated with his “house:” “me, and my women, and my children, and my father and my kinsfolk.” Clearly Amulek is the head of the household, as he places himself at the center. He then lists “my women,” “my children,” “my father,” and “my kinsfolk.” Of these terms, “my children” and “my father” do not appear to give any difficulty, we may be certain that we understand those terms precisely as Amulek intended them. A more difficult term is “my women.” What does Amulek mean by “my women?”
The term “my women” is sometimes used in the Book of Mormon to indicate “wife.” John A. Tvedtnes has suggest that this usage might be related to an underlying Hebrew construction:
"…the Hebrew word used for wife really means woman. In three Book of Mormon passages, the word women appears to mean wives:
“Our women did bear children” (1 Nephi 17:1).
“Our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children” (1 Nephi 17:20).
“For behold, he hath blessed mine house, he hath blessed me, and my women, and my children, and my father and my kinsfolk; yea, even all my kindred hath he blessed” (Alma 10:11). (Tvedtnes, John A. “The Hebrew Background of the Book of Mormon.” In: Rediscovering the book of Mormon. FARMS 1991, p. 91).
A similar linguistic convention exists in several languages, including many in Mesoamerica. Regardless of where the term comes from, it is most likely that in this case, Amulek is specifically speaking of his wives, in the plural. How did Amulek get multiple wives?
Amulek has indicated that he has been converted to the Lord, and that he had been a much more worldly man (see verse 6). One of the aspects of the religion we saw among the people of Noah was multiple wives (Mosiah 11:2). There is much of the order of Nehor that bears remarkable similarity to the religion of the people of Noah. Indeed, most of the set of objectionable religious/political “innovations” that the Nephite prophets condemn fall into a set of traits that are described by the religion of the people of Noah as well as the order of Nehor. These include the desire for kings, the desire for a hierarchical society (some not working with their own hands), costly apparel, and apparently multiple wives. While we don’t hear much about this specifically after Jacob’s sermon (Jacob 2:23-27) it clearly enters the Nephite cultural experience at various points. We saw it clearly for the people of Noah, and we see it here in Ammonihah. It is not a coincidence that a city that has heavily adopted the order of Nehor would have a system allowing multiple wives. That was yet another of the cultural traditions of the world around them, just as the rest of the specifics of the order of Nehor were.
The final term that appears to be connected to Amulek’s “house” is “my kindred.” This term is more difficult to define, and we may only speculate. We know that “my kindred” does not include any of the named relatives, so it cannot mean himself, his wives, or his children, or his father. It is therefore likely that other close family are living with him, which would not be unusual if he were a wealthy man and could provide for him. Perhaps he had a brother or sister and their family living in the compound. We cannot be certain, only suggest that there were others in the compound that were living in the same area, and therefore should have been included as part of the definition of Amulek’s “house.” In the later Aztec examples, these close relatives could include brothers and their families living in the same compound.