One “who was the foremost among them” approaches Alma. In a category of poor farmers, who is the foremost? Here is must remember that underlying all other social and political arrangements is the kinship structure, and each kin group will have its “foremost.” In a kin organization, this is typically a patriarchal position more than an elected one, nevertheless, there is a kin organization, and a structure providing one who may be considered “foremost” and responsible for the welfare of the kin group. This suggests that the people who have gathered to hear Alma are probably from a single kin group that had settled a particular area together. This fits with the general pattern of kin physical organization in Mesoamerica.
This foremost person (assuredly a man in this culture) presents the clear problem of the social segregation. He and the other farmer-poor have been the labor that supplied the trappings of the elite, and yet they are being effectively excluded from the benefits of the elite, even to the exclusion of a recognized place for their worship. They are not happy about this, and approach Alma as one who might have a solution.
It is significant that the question being asked is one of religion and God, not of access to buildings or riches. These are people whose basic lives are intact. They farm, and their lives as farmers are relatively stable. What they miss is not the access to public office, but the access to recognized places to worship their God. They are not unhappy with their economic position, but rather their religious position.
Comment should be made on the fact that this recorded speech tends to support the view of active exclusion. It may be that this is where Mormon got his idea of enforced separation. It is equally as probable that this foremost man is describing the real effect rather than the legal precedent. The reality is the exclusion, and the exclusion comes at the hands of the elite.