Archaeology and the Book of Mormon

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I've lately become interested in the theory that the pseudoarcheological and pseudoegyptological elements of Mormonism were introduced a decade or two into the religion's existence to obscure its actual origins in the less "serious" tradition of rural Yankee cunning-folk practices. It's not exactly shocking if you're at all familiar with how prevalent practices like dowsing, scrying, and so forth really were in places like rural Western New York in the early nineteenth century. What I think is funny about this is that by current religious-studies standards Mormonism is less obviously bullsh**t if it's placed in this framework rather than in what would have been seen as a "higher" esoteric tradition at the time.