298 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BoU. 188 



THE ENTREPRENEUR IN LITERATURE 



HISTORIC BOLE 



It lias been noted earlier ("Theoretical Foundations," pp. 10-12) 

 that anthropologists have generally interested themselves in culture 

 contact primarily for the sake of its effects in terms of culture change. 

 To the limited extent that they have given attention to the historical 

 role of traders, therefore, it is not surprising that they have sought to 

 measure their influence by the yardstick of changes in native sub- 

 sistence patterns and material culture. 



The replacement of aboriginal material culture by items of Euro- 

 pean manufacture is easily and widely recognized, and can be laid to 

 the door of the trader with little fear of contradiction (see, e.g., Barnes, 

 1951, p. 244; Hogbin, 1951, p. 187; Keesmg, 1928, p. 42; Lewis, 1942, 

 pp. 60-61 ; Wilson, 1951, p. 62) . Changes, or at least shifts of em- 

 phasis, in economic patterns (cf . Lewis, 1942, pp. 60-61 ; Mandelbaum, 

 1940, p. 187), including the deliberate promulgation of wagework 

 (Barnes, 1951, p. 244 ; Hogbin, 1951, p. 187 ; Reed, 1943, p. 122 ; Wilson, 

 1951, p. 62) are also seen as overt effects of trader-native contacts. So 

 far as anthropological studies go, these are in actuality the only in- 

 fluences in native life which have been traced to the direct and de- 

 liberate intervention of traders. 



All of the other purported effects of entrepreneurs upon aboriginal 

 life, as determined by students of culture history, have been indirect 

 and often accidental ones, resulting from changes in material culture 

 and subsistence patterns. They are developments which may well 

 have been as unexpected by the trader as by the tribal group itself. 

 They have included, for example, the breakdown of traditional status 

 systems resulting from substitution of cheap manufactured goods 

 for prestige items of native manufacture (e.g., Keesing, 1941, p. 68; 

 Sharp, 1952) ; and the disintegration of native authority through the 

 removal of its economic sanctions (Hogbin, 1939, p. 166; Keesing, 

 1928, p. 42). Most significantly, they have included the intensifica- 

 tion of conflict between tribal groups through the introduction of 

 firearms (Keesing, 1928, p. 42; 1941, p. 58; Lewis, 1942, pp. 60-61; 

 Mandelbaum, 1940, p. 187). Such has been the historical role of the 

 trader as determined by cultural anthropologists. 



MODERN BOLE 



In North America, trading between Anglos and natives is found 

 primarily on the Navaho Reservation and in the more remote por- 

 tions of Canada and Alaska. The celebrated Hudson's Bay Company 

 continues to maintain slightly over 200 trading posts in various parts 

 of Canada (see Bonnycastle, 1943, p. 70) — about equal to the number 

 of posts in the Navaho country (cf. Kluckhohn and Leighton, 1946, 



