Adams] SHONTO : ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 5 



assimilation, but rather to perpetuate Navaho cultural and social 

 differentiation. 



In short, it seemed to me that the role of the trader in Shonto com- 

 munity opened up new vistas not only in the study of recent Navaho 

 culture history, but also in the analysis of culture contact in general. 

 I became so intrigued by the anthropological possibilities of my experi- 

 ence at Shonto that I determined to carry out a formal investigation of 

 the relationship of trading post and Navaho society and economy. 

 Considering that such a study would comprise a satisfactory doctoral 

 dissertation, I made plans to continue my education toward the Ph.D. 

 Having received generous encouragement in this direction from Drs. 

 Haury and Spicer of the Department of Anthropology at the Univer- 

 sity of Arizona, I selected that school for my studies. 



My decision to work toward a Ph. D. was made in January 1954. 

 Although I had at that time no very clear perception of the direc- 

 tion my study would take, I began keeping notes and compiling rec- 

 ords of trader-Navaho relations, and especially of the purely economic 

 aspects of trading. Some of these notes and records have found their 

 way into the present report, particularly in "Retail Trade," pp. 184r- 

 214, and "Community Services," pp. 214-230. I continued in my overt 

 capacity as trader at Shonto, coupled with my covert status as economic 

 and social observer and recorder, until the end of August 1954, when 

 I resigned to enroll in the Graduate College at the University of Ari- 

 zona to pursue work toward my doctorate in anthropology. 



THE TRADER IN LITERATURE 



One of my first undertakings was an examination of the literature 

 on Navaho life for any material which would confirm my own observa- 

 tions and experience. I found, as I had expected, that there was 

 virtually nothing, and that my earlier ignorance concerning the role 

 of the trader was not due to unf amiliarity with the literature. There 

 can be no doubt that both anthropologists and informed laymen have 

 interested themselves in the Navaho primarily for their native religion, 

 and accounts of Navaho life, both technical and popular, have em- 

 phasized this sphere of activity at the expense and often to the total 

 exclusion of all others. Of all the areas of Navaho life, however, none 

 has been more consistently ignored or even misrepresented than the 

 economic field. I was not surprised at this state of affairs, since I was 

 and am convinced that Navaho economics, and especially the sup- 

 posedly "traditional" Navaho economy, could not be understood with- 

 out making an intensive study in and of the trading post, and to my 

 knowledge no such study had ever been made. 



Anthropological studies of the Navaho fall largely into three basic 

 classes, corresponding in a rough way to chronological phases in the 



635893—63 2 



