Culture: This passage again records combat between opposing leaders. The battle might have ended with Lib’s death, but his brother continues the battle. As a brother, he was likely seen as a legitimate successor, if we can impute later practice to the earlier times.
Redaction: Any military success might have equally terrorized the local population; but in this case, killing women and children parallels the events that Moroni lived through at the end of the Nephites. This ruthless and terrifying “new” army was so frightening that, in a parallel situation, a battle-hardened Nephite army that had been victorious in its previous engagement simply turned tail and ran at the sight of the Gadianton-reinforced army. (See commentary accompanying Mormon 2:3.) Thus, Moroni, haunted by that memory and understanding it with a paradigm of cyclical history, may have introduced this information into the Jaredite story (or strengthened a less explicit mention by Ether) to stress the parallels. (See commentary accompanying verse 15 and Mormon 9.)