Just as Zoram’s oath (1 Ne. 4:37) altered a hostile relationship, Ammon’s simple declaration frees him and his companions from their chains and signals the beginning of a celebration. No longer a danger, they are kinsmen and welcome guests. This rapid shift of position is precisely the kind of social relationship that kinship creates. The declaration of genealogy serves this very purpose of distinguishing friend from foe.
Limhi declares a day of rejoicing not simply because Ammon has arrived, but because he now “know[s] of a surety that my brethren who were in the land of Zarahemla are yet alive.” It seems like an odd statement. Why would he ever doubt it? Zeniff’s party was small compared to the Nephites who remained in Zarahemla. This statement of uncertainty, carried across three generations, suggests the level of conflict in the union of the Nephites and Zarahemlaites. It must have seemed at least possible to Limhi that the contentions had increased to the point of armed conflict, conflict in which the more numerous Zarahemlaites easily had numerical superiority and might have exterminated or exiled the lineal/cultural Nephites, who were Limhi’s “brethren.”