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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BuU. 188 



sary role still played by pawn : it is a source of limited, purely indi- 

 vidual credit in contrast to book credit which is drawn by and for 

 whole households (see "Economic Interdependence," pp. 103-108) . No 

 one but the owner of the piece is ever allowed to draw credit against 

 pawn except in a few cases where a specific delegation of privilege 

 has been made; and no one but the owner is ever held accountable 

 for the debt. Thus while a whole household shares a single book 

 account, it is not uncommon for several different members to have 

 items in pawn individually at the same time. 



Small pawn accounts, i.e., principally those drawn against brace- 

 lets and beads, are not based on any specific anticipated earnings. 

 They are backed, rather, by the value of the piece plus the trader's 

 confidence that the owner can surely raise the few dollars involved 

 from some source or other, or at least borrow it, in the next 6 months 

 (see below) . The primary function of pawn is thus to provide credit 

 in the absence of other tangible or anticipated resources. 



Pawn has a further function, in a few cases, of securing fairly 

 extensive credit against more or less uncertain earnings or uncertain 

 collection thereof. Particularly involved are railroad and other off- 

 reservation wage earnings, and the livestock accounts of families 

 from outside Shonto community. Finally, the trading-post pawn 

 vault offers the safest possible repository for valuable and bulky 

 items of jewelry. This consideration alone is probably responsible 

 for a third of the jewelry in Shonto's vault, since much of it has been 

 voluntarily entered as security against accounts for which no collat- 

 eral would be required. In this way Shonto community is thought 

 to keep a good 75 percent of its silver belts and other more valuable 

 pieces of jewelry in the trading post vault at all times. 



Some recorded pawn holdings at Shonto Trading Post, and total 

 indebtedness thereon, are shown in table 33. 



Under tribal trading regulations all pawn accounts run for a legal 

 term of 6 months. No interest may be charged during this period; 



Table 33.- 



-Pawn accounts at Shonto Trading Post, Feb. 1954, Sept. 1955, and 

 Dec. 1955 



• Immediately before lamb sales. 



» Included silver hatbands, bowguards (gates), brooches, silver-mounted bridles, saddles, and 1 truelc. 



