104 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



Organized exploitative activity among their member groups, as ob- 

 served elsewhere by Kimball and Provinse (1942, pp. 22-23; see also 

 Thompson, 1950, pp. 144-145), is rarely seen at Shonto. 



Eesident lineages are simply land-use communities (cf. Thompson, 

 1950, p. 144; Kluckhohn and Leighton, 1946, p. 63) wherein a group 

 of related residence groups retain a common vested interest in a 

 specific and contiguous range area which all occupy. Vested interest 

 extends to all resources of the land occupied, including job oppor- 

 tunities. As earlier stated, land tenure by resident lineages is ulti- 

 mately a matter of inlierited preemptory right stemming directly 

 from historical conditions involved in the original settlement of the 

 community. No formal organization or communal activity is implied. 



Residence groups are the regular maximum subsistence units of 

 Shonto society (see "Kesidence Groups," pp. 57-59). Although 

 Navaho households are ideally self-supporting (see Kluckholin and 

 Leighton, 1946, p. 54) , they are not always so in practice. Speciali- 

 zation in productive activity as well as differential productive 

 capacity often results in considerable income discrepancies among 

 households in the same residence group. These discrepancies are com- 

 pensated for by a regular pattern of interdependence among house- 

 holds. 



In all activities connected with the exploitation of native subsist- 

 ence resources the residence group normally functions as a single 

 unit of production and consumption (see table 14). Livestock, al- 

 though individually owned, are nearly always herded and corralled 

 together in a single band as a cooperative enterprise of the entire 

 group (cf. Kluckholm and Leighton, 1946, p. 51). Both the labor 

 of herding and the products of slaughter are likely to be shared 

 among all participating households, the actual owning household 

 being entitled to the choicest parts of the animal. By tradition the 

 hide goes to the individual owner of the slaughtered animal. 



Cornfields, although assigned by law to an individual holder (nor- 

 mally the residence group headman), are likewise commonly op- 

 erated as a joint enterprise of the entire group, with all households 

 entitled to a share in the harvest. Even where the residence group 

 controls more than one field, as is true in a few cases (see table 17), 

 there is seldom a clearcut division of labor or reward among 

 households. 



"Wagons, although individually owned, likewise function for the 

 benefit of the entire group in most cases. As shown in table 17, 

 there is seldom more than one wagon to a residence group. Horses 

 and trucks do not fall in the same category; they are strictly per- 

 sonal estate. 



Where Navaho households are ideally self-supporting, residence 

 groups are necessarily so — hence their classification as maximum 

 subsistence units. They are, in fact, organized economic units sub- 



