Adams] SHONTO : ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 211 



can go to the store across the street." To an even greater extent, 

 nevertheless, the trader's advantage over his clientele is implicit in 

 the cross-societal nature of the trade itself. 



In White retail trade, the clerk or merchant is in most cases at a 

 status disadvantage with respect to his customer, such that deferen- 

 tial behavior is expected of him. In the Navaho trade the opposite 

 is true. Modern American society is the ultimate dominant factor 

 in the Navaho trade, and by virtue of membership in that society 

 the trader enjoys a status advantage over his clientele which is con- 

 sistently emphasized and exploited. In any major dispute involved 

 in trading he is always right not because of superior individual 

 knowledge or experience, but simply because he is a Wliite man, 

 and trading is a White man's game. It is the customer, not the 

 merchant, who shows deferential behavior. 



The trader's status advantage is implicit in eveiy aspect of the 

 Navaho trade. It is often resented but seldom disputed by the 

 clientele. 



The conventional, institutionalized patterns of deference which 

 characterize most AVliite retail trade are almost entirely absent from 

 the Navaho trade. Instead, the trader exploits his status advantage 

 in all commercial dealings by maintaining an attitude of detachment 

 and indifference which forces the customer to take the initiative and 

 come to him. It is always up to the customer to open negotiations; 

 traders almost never speak to Navahos until they have been addressed, 

 even if there is no one else in the store. In this way he avoids com- 

 mitting himself to any attitude toward the client until he has heard 

 what is wanted of him. 



Throughout the process of trading the trader speaks as little as 

 possible, maintaining an air of aloofness which continually forces 

 the consumer to come to him in the character of a supplicant. If 

 the customer is hesitant he may be admonished to speed it up or make 

 up his mind. If a rival customer demands attention he will almost 

 certainly be told in straightforward terms to shut up and wait his 

 turn. If a requested item is out of stock, the customer will be so 

 informed with no pretense at apology. In a word, the trader treats 

 his Navaho clientele as if they were children, and he and not they 

 knew what was good for them. Hence the saying that "you don't 

 have to take any guff off the customers" ; it is the latter, in fact, who 

 have to "take the guff." 



Wliite visitors, accustomed to automatic deference from retail clerks, 

 tend to think of traders as sullen, rude and contrary. They are per- 

 haps unaware that the attitudes which thus impress them are deliber- 

 ately maintained by the trader in order to emphasize his status ad- 

 vantage. In the case of tourists, however, normal reserve in business 

 dealings is augmented by the suspicion that they are probably "Indian 



