SHONTO: A STUDY OF THE ROLE OF THE 

 TRADER IN A MODERN NAVAHO COMMUNITY 



By William Y. Adams 



INTRODUCTION 



DEFINITION AND DELIMITATION 



This is not a cominunity study in any ordinary sense of the term 

 (see, e.g., Steward, 1950) ; nor is there any such geographical or social 

 reality as Shonto community. Throughout the northwestern reaches 

 of the Navaho Reservation, settlement is scattered but at the same time 

 more or less regular, so that it is impossible to identify any significant 

 structural unit of population larger than the kin-determined residence 

 group (see Social Structure," pp. 54-65) . In this respect, as in nearly 

 all others, Navaho society in the Shonto region is a true folk society 

 (cf. Redfield, 1947; Miner, 1952). 



The 100 Navaho families whose activities are recorded and analyzed 

 in these pages are not set apart from their neighbors, particularly 

 to the north, west, and south, by any visible boundaries, either social 

 or geographical. Among all the Navaho on the reservation, their 

 sole collective distinction is that they are the most frequent and regu- 

 lar customers of Shonto Trading Post, in whose vicinity they live. 

 In other words, this is a study of a trading community — a clientele. 



Even in this regard a considerable amount of selection has been 

 exercised, such that the delmiitation of the group is largely arbitrary. 

 Frequency and regularity of trading are, of course, matters of degree. 

 If all the Navaho individuals who had ever been customers at Shonto 

 Trading Post were numbered as clientele, their aggregate would cer- 

 tainly come to over 2,000. At least 1,000 persons appear at the store 

 with sufficient regularity so that their names are known to the trader. 

 Of this latter group, however, about half live closer to other trading 

 posts than to Shonto, and hence are likely to do a good part of their 

 trading elsewhere. Such divided trading relationships precluded the 

 gathering of the sort of detailed and complete information, particu- 

 larly with regard to economic activities and income (see pp. 94r-148) 

 which were considered essential to the present study. 



