Adams] SHONTO: ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 299 



p. 39). The former liave been described in general by Bonny castle 

 (of the Hudson's Bay Company's fur-trade division) in terms gen- 

 erally suggestive of Shonto (Bomiycastle, 1943, pp. 62-66). He dis- 

 courses on the advantages to the natives of a "benevolent monopoly," 

 and notes how "the problem of enabling Indians to become self-sup- 

 porting is of vital interest to the trader." Among the benefits brought 

 by the latter are enumerated the material products of civilization, 

 law and order, medical assistance, and the benefit of having a "trained 

 advisor and friend." 



One Hudson's Bay Company store, at Great Wliale River on the 

 east shore of Hudson's Bay, has been studied in detail by an anthro- 

 pologist (Honigmami, 1952). According to the author of the study: 



Considerable social power is linked with the status of company manager in 

 a northern community like Great Whale Biver. While such power is not limited 

 to trading, its expression is conditioned by the fact that natives who are depend- 

 ent on the manager for employment or credit can hardly help but listen to, 

 and sometimes obey him. The trader scolds laziness and other deviations from 

 the norms he values. When these norms are also shared by natives, the sanc- 

 tions of the "boss" meet with warm approval. The trader influences the annual 

 cycle of the Eskimo through the amount of labor he makes available to them 

 in the post during the summer or at Christmas. Additional power is invested 

 in the trader as a result of government agencies relying on him to execute admin- 

 istrative procedures communicated by mail or radio. [Honigmaim, 1952, pp. 

 514-515. A similar account of the Hudson's Bay trader's role is given in a letter 

 quoted by Bonnycastle, 1943, p. 72.] 



No comparable situation has been described anywhere south of the 

 Rio Grande. This is par excellence the land of the wide open mar- 

 ket — of regular market days and a pattern of native commerce which 

 goes far back into colonial and probably pre-contact times (cf . Beals, 

 1952, p. 70; Tax, 1952 b, pp. 52-56). According to Tax (1952 b, 

 p. 55) : "In regions where the market economy predominates, among 

 Ladinos and Indians alike there is an economic individualism and 

 tendency toward opportunism." In the face of this type of native 

 commercial pattern, European traders have apparently not been able 

 to acquire a sufficient monopoly of supply and markets to establish 

 a trading pattern similar to that found in North America. 



The free market economy is probably characteristic of most of the 

 areas of Latin America which supported high cultures in aboriginal 

 times (cf. Gillin, 1947). It is apparently less developed in the 

 southern and eastern portions of South America. In these areas, 

 however, pioneer traders, if they ever gained a foothold at all, were 

 speedily supplanted by the development of the encomienda if not of 

 outright slavery (cf. Frazier, 1957, pp. 101-109). The private entre- 

 preneur necessarily gave way to the company store or commissary (cf . 

 Wolf, 1956, pp. 240-241 ) . On the Puerto Rican hacienda, however, so- 

 cial functions closely comparable to those found at Shonto Trading 

 Post ("Community Center," pp. 229-230) have been described 



