232 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



but people who are their carriers do" as the recent report of the Sum- 

 mer Seminar on Acculturation (1954, p, 980) expressed it. Culture 

 contact, therefore, takes place within a social context or system which 

 should be capable of structural- functional analysis on much the same 

 terms as other social systems (cf. Malinowski, 1945, pp. 14-15). 



Involved in this approach to culture contact are several implications 

 which are fundamental in the present study. First, it is assumable 

 that individual carriers of the same general culture may vary consid- 

 erably as to what part of their own culture they know and are capable 

 of transmitting (cf. Summer Seminar on Acculturation, 1954, pp. 

 980-981) . Secondly, the social and physical environment within which 

 carriers of different cultures meet may vary equally. Finally, the 

 character of the contacting individuals, together with the circum- 

 stances which surround their contact, will go far toward determining 

 the cultural effects of the contact itself. In sum, the effects of culture 

 contact, both quantitative and qualitative, are determined by variables 

 in the contact situation no less than by the character of the cultures 

 involved. 



It may be assumed, on this basis, that the cultural impact of each 

 and any of Shonto's contact institutions upon the Navaho community 

 will depend in considerable measure upon its own special character. 



QUALITATIVE VABIABILITY IN CULTURE CONTACT 



In its general consideration of intercultural relations, the Summer 

 Seminar on Acculturation (1954, pp. 980-984) noted, as variable fac- 

 tors, "intercultural roles" and "intercultural communication." The 

 former, in particular, comprehends those conditions which may pro- 

 duce qualitative differences in the pattern of contact between two 

 cultures. It was observed that 



As carriers of traditions . . . contacting individuals never know their entire 

 cultures and never convey all they know of them to one another. That part of 

 their cultural inventory which they do transmit is conditioned primarily by their 

 reasons for making the contact, that is, by the cultural concomitants of the role 

 that they assume in dealing with an alien group. [Summer Seminar on Accul- 

 turation, 1954, pp. 980-981.] 



The general heading "Intercultural Koles" is perhaps suflScient, for 

 purposes of a universal model, to cover the most common qualitative 

 variables in culture contact. In dealing with a specific contact situa- 

 tion, however, it should normally be possible to achieve a much more 

 refined and precise identification of the factors which differentiate 

 contact institutions one from another. In the analysis of culture con- 

 tact at Shonto which follows, some 20 factors have been identified 

 which are assumed to affect the impact of White agencies upon the 

 Navaho community (see "A Model for the Analysis of Influence at 

 Shonto," pp. 234-237, and table 37, p. 235) . A majority of these may 



