Adams] SHONTO: ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 269 



expect he will carry out the requirements of his position. This usage 

 of role can only apply to empirically observable behavior, not to ex- 

 pectation. Thus, as Levy (1952, p. 159) observes, "If the term 'role' is 

 used consistently with its definition there can be no talk of people 

 acting in terms of roles. Their actions are their roles." 



It is apparent that the term "role" is being employed in both struc- 

 tural and processual senses to designate the behavioral (not necessar- 

 ily dynamic) aspect of status. Levy (1952, pp. 159-160) resolves the 

 discrepancy between the two usages by referring to the former, con- 

 notating expected behavior, as "ideal role," and the latter, involving 

 observed behavior, as "actual role." He notes also that "ideal role" 

 is properly an aspect of status (Levy, 1952, p. 160) . 



In the present study, the ideal role of Shonto Trading Post has 

 already been identified in terms of a complex of functions and activ- 

 ities as described in pages 184-230. The term "role" as employed 

 throughout the present discussion, however, refers to "actual role" — 

 to the way in which the trading post actually performs, and in a few 

 cases does not perform, its complex of stipulated functions. Further, 

 since the study is concerned with the behavior of the trader with 

 specific reference to his Navaho clientele, said behavior may be appro- 

 propriately said to constitute the cross-cultural role of the trader. 



THE ANALYSIS OF EOLE 



The distinction between ideal and actual role, significant in many 

 cases (cf. Levy, 1952, p. 160; also Merton, 1949, pp. 61-63 on "mani- 

 fest" vs. "latent" functions), becomes of profomid importance in 

 situations of culture contact. Where there is imperfect cross-cultural 

 communication and no uniformity of values, there is likely also to 

 be no uniformity of expectation. In these circumstances actual 

 behavior may be freer from the dictates of social expectation than 

 is normally true in intracultural situations. If "intercultural roles" 

 are defined as "constellations of behavior which are appropriate to 

 particular situations" (Summer Seminar on Acculturation, 1954, p. 

 981), it is necessary to discover from whose point of view they are 

 appropriate. 



It was noted earlier ("Ancillary Functions," pp. 220-230) that per- 

 ceptions of the true purpose and proper functions of the trading 

 post vary considerably as between Navahos and Wliites. There is 

 not even any uniform conception among Whites themselves as to 

 the status of the store (cf. "Intracultural Relations at the Contact 

 Level," pp. 253-256). In other words Shonto's trader has no one 

 clearly defined ideal role, but a series of partly conflicting ones. These 

 circumstances allow him considerable leeway in "the manner in which 

 (he) actually carries out the requirements of his position," (Davis, 

 1942, p. 311). 



