Although it is not the main focus of Mormon, the complexity of Nephite society can easily be seen in his history. Those studying ancient Meso-America have also been able to determine that the ancient American peoples had a well developed social and economical system. Hugh Nibley compares the comments of these secular experts with the Book of Mormon narrative.
Hugh Nibley
"…E. W. Andrews, p.263: ’As civilization becomes more complex, it becomes more vulnerable—as we are discovering to our increasing horror in recent years… . The problems of maintenance and unity increase geometrically.’
"3 Nephi 6:11-14: ’Many merchants … and also many lawyers, and many officers … and … people began to be distinguished by ranks… . And thus there became a great inequality, … insomuch that the church began to be broken up.’
"…General summary (G. R. Willey and D. B. Shimkin), p. 459: ’Late Classic society was more sharply differentiated into elite and commoner strata than … Early Classic times. As this process of an elite consolidation went on, [there was] … a related development of a class of bureaucrats and craft specialists.’
"3 Nephi 6:12: ’And the people began to be distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning; yea, some were ignorant because of their poverty, and others did receive great learning because of their riches.’
"…General summary, p. 485: ’The role of the elite must have become increasingly exploitative as resource margins declined; … widening social distance [was] an inevitable accompaniment of the evolution of ranked, and probably kin-based, society to a class structured one… . In some areas … the numbers of commoners were being maintained only by recruitment and capture from other centers. Yet the upper class continued to grow, to expand its demands for luxury … and to strive to compete with rival centers and aristocracies.‘ ’The priestly leaders of these great centers, in their efforts to outdo each other, to draw more wealth and prestige to themselves, … must have diverted all possible labor and capital to their aggrandizement.’
“3 Nephi 6:27-28: ’Those judges had many friends and kindreds; and … almost all the lawyers and the high priests, did gather . . together, and unite with the kindreds of those judges… . And they did enter into a covenant one with another.’” (The Prophetic Book of Mormon, p. 372-6)