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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BuU. 188 



Table 11. — Residence affiUations of SJionto households 



> Shonto School. 



local units, while only 8 were purely matrilocal, 3 were purely 

 patrilocal, and 1 was neolocal. 



True neolocal residence, in the sense of preempting unoccupied and 

 neutral territory, does not occur except in the case of the school. The 

 structure of land tenure (see pp. 97-109) is such that any new house- 

 hold must inevitably be either matrilocal or patrilocal with respect 

 to resident lineage. Nowadays, new households are also always estab- 

 lished initially within existing residence groups, either of the hus- 

 band's or wife's parents. Later, as the household expands, it may 

 in some circumstances be moved 2 or 3 miles away to form the nucleus 

 of a new residence group (cf . above) . 



Residence affiliations of Shonto households of different ages is shown 

 in table 11. 



Table 11 suggests the emergence of a matrilocal tradition in the 

 present generation. Seven of the eight most recent marriages at 

 Shonto have, in fact, established matrilocal residence. 



Variation in residence tradition occurs spacially as well as tem- 

 porally. Table 12 gives the distribution of matrilocal and patrilocal 

 residences as among the population elements occupying the south- 

 eastern, southwestern, and northern portions of the community re- 

 spectively (see map 3) . 



The preponderance of patrilocal residence, not only in older house- 

 holds but also in the most recently and sparsely settled portion of 

 Shonto community, points strongly to a historical factor. In view 

 of the traditional Navaho pattern of masculine authority in economic 



Table 12. — Residence affiJiations of Shonto households in different population 



groups 1 



'Excluding uncertain and neolocal residence. 



