PAKT 3: THE KOLE OF THE TKADING POST 



THE STRUCTURE OF CONTACT 



"Retail Trade," pp. 184^214, and "Community Services," pp. 214- 

 230, were concerned with those direct relationships, economic and 

 otherwise, which exist between modern Shonto Trading Post and its 

 Navaho clientele. It remains, in Part 3, to consider the same relation- 

 ships from a broader point of view, as forming part of the overall 

 pattern of JSfavaho-White culture contact. The trading post will be 

 examined not as an economic institution, but as one of a number of 

 active agents of modem American culture. 



Even within the narrow confines of Shonto community, the trading 

 post must share its role as contact institution with several other 

 Wliite agencies. Alongside it, in 1955, were the community school, 

 the missionary, and Navajo National Monument. To these must be 

 added certain institutions outside the community which have frequent 

 contact with its members : Government offices at Tuba City, Flagstaff 

 businesses, and off-reservation job situations. 



In spite of its historical precedence, therefore (see "Development 

 of the Modem Community," pp. 42-52), Shonto Trading Post cannot 

 a priori be considered the primary agent of American culture in the 

 Navaho community. Its special role as such, the implications of 

 which will be considered in "Cross- Cultural Eole," pp. 267-297, must 

 be established in contrast to the roles of other contact institutions. It 

 will be necessary, therefore, to analyze the overall contact situation at 

 Shonto in such a way as to differentiate clearly the parts played by 

 the different American institutions involved. 



THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS 

 THE STRUCTXTBAL ANALYSIS OF CULTURE CONTACT 



Anthropologists over the past quarter century have produced 

 several general outlines for the study of culture contact (e.g.. Red- 

 field, Linton, and Plerskovits, 1936 ; Linton, 1940, pp. ix-x ; Malinow- 

 ski, 1945, p. 73; Summer Seminar on Acculturation, 1954). All of 

 them, in one way or another, have taken the position that "contact" 

 cannot be approached as an abstract phenomenon without reference 

 to specific physical and social situations involving contact between 

 specific individuals and/or culture products. "Cultures do not meet, 



231 



