Adams] SHONTO: ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 215 



cific sense (as ". . . the dynamic aspect of status") or in a general 

 sense, so that it is appropriate to speak of an institution as having a 

 series of specific roles and. at the same time a single general role which 

 is the sum of the aforesaid. To avoid ambiguity in the present study, 

 the term "role" is reserved exclusively for the latter, general sense. 

 Shonto Trading Post is therefore considered to have only a single 

 role in the Navaho community, the analysis of wliich will be the 

 subject of Part 3. In the meantime it is necessary to introduce a 

 series of substitute terms for the more specific aspects of role, as 

 implied, for example, in the statement that an agency of culture 

 contact ". . . may adopt a complex but limited number of roles." 

 (Summer Seminar on Acculturation, 1954, p. 981.) Terms employed 

 here, each at a different level of abstraction, will be "charter," "func- 

 tion," and "activity." 



CHAETEE 



The term "charter" may conveniently be used to designate the basic 

 operational sanction or raison d'etre of an institution. It may be said, 

 then, that Shonto Trading Post is chartered as a general retail store ; 

 the Tuba City hospital as a facility for in-patient and out-patient 

 medical treatment of Navahos, and so on. Implicit in the concept of 

 charter are specific motivations as well as a series of overt activities. 

 Shonto's character as a business enterprise carries with it the essential 

 motivation of maximum profit, and a series of profit-making activi- 

 ties such as were described in "Ketail Trade," pp. 184-214. 



It is possible, however, for an institution to serve more than one 

 purpose, and even to serve purposes other than its own. To the same 

 degree, therefore, it is true that an institution may have more than 

 one charter. In such cases the historic original charter, expressing 

 the purpose of the institution itself, may be termed the formal charter, 

 as distinguished from operational charters which have come about 

 through use. The latter do not, therefore, necessarily imply any 

 purpose on the part of the institution itself ; they may rather repre- 

 sent the way in which it is wittingly or unwittingly used by those in 

 contact with it for their own purposes. 



For purposes of the present study, Shonto Trading Post may be 

 said to have a formal charter as a business enterprise, and operational 

 charters as a community center and as a channel of communication. 



FUNCTION 



The term "function" is introduced here as more or less equivalent 

 to the more specific connotation of role; that is, to designate ". . . 

 constellations of behavior which are appropriate to particular situa- 

 tions" (Summer Seminar on Acculturation, 1954, p. 981). Function 

 may be said to express the specific expectation of those in contact 

 with a given agency rather than the will of the agency itself. Shonto 



