Speaking of the Tapir, two commentators on New World animals wrote the following:
This strange beast is one of the Hoofed Animals, as we can tell at once if we glance at its feet; and although it looks like a gigantic pig, the Tapir is more nearly related to the Horse and the Rhinoceros. (F.M. and L.T. Duncan, Animal Life in the New World [London: Oxford University Press, 1939], 36, emphasis added)
Furthermore, commenting on the peccary (perhaps the “swine” of Ether 9:18), the same author wrote:
Another pig-like animal living in the depths of the forests is the Peccary. It is not a great bulky creature like the Tapir, but is about the size of a small hog. It has a long snout, slender legs, no tail, and is clothed with stiff bristly hairs which form a regular mane behind its head.
Peccaries really do belong to the pig family. They are the little wild pigs of South America. (Ibid., 37, emphasis added)
Such reminded me of the concept of “loanshifting,” something that has most recently been discussed by Neal Rappleye in his 2017 FairMormon Conference paper “Put Away Childish Things”: Learning to Read the Book of Mormon Using Mature Historical Thought
The late Umberto Eco also discussed such in his (excellent) Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition
