Adams] SHONTO: ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 303 



The free trader is undoubtedly the key figure in the nonplantation 

 economy as is the planter himself on the plantation. The trader 

 not only markets the products of native industry, but also helps his 

 clientele to augment such subsistence with seasonal wagework (Barnes, 

 1951, p. 244; Honigmann, 1952, p. 215; Hunter, 1936, p. 5; Hogbin, 

 1939, p. 160; Wilson, 1951, p. 62). It is apparent, as developed in 

 the foregoing discussion, that entrepreneurs whose role and functions 

 are comparable to those of the Shonto trader are to be found largely 

 in areas of nonplantation colonial economies, and particularly on 

 or near native reservations (Barnes, 1951, p. 244; Bonnycastle, 1943, 

 p. TO; Wilson, 1951, p. 62). 



HISTOEIOAL INFLUENCE OF ENTBEPBENEUES 



In spite of the great and even cataclysmic culture changes which 

 have been attributed to the influence of European entrepreneurs (cf. 

 Keesing, 1928, p. 42; 1941, p. 58; Price, 1950, passim), it has not been 

 shown that traders, at Shonto or elsewhere, have deliberately fostered 

 change in areas of culture other than subsistence and material culture. 

 They have not, for example, endorsed or assisted the efforts of mis- 

 sionaries or educators in most instances. On the contrary, the roles 

 of trader on the one hand and of other contact agencies on the other 

 have been clearly contrasted in several instances (e.g., Hogbin, 1939, 

 p. 160; Keesing, 1941, p. 68; Eeed, 1943, p. 122). It would seem that, 

 as at Shonto (see "The Kole of Shonto Trading Post," pp. 290-297), 

 the trader has seldom been an assimilationist. 



Moreover, it is apparent that in those instances where the influence 

 of traders has inadvertently wrought profound changes in native 

 cultures, these have not been of an assimilative nature. Often they 

 have been purely disruptive. Circulation of certain material goods 

 has indirectly caused the breakdown of aboriginal social and political 

 organization without any replacement by European patterns (cf. 

 Keesing, 1928, p. 42; 1941, p. 68; Hogbin, 1939, p. 165; Price, 1950, 

 passim). Such consequences can hardly have been anticipated by 

 traders; on the other hand they themselves have done nothing to 

 introduce new traditions to replace those which were disrupted. 



In other and perhaps equally numerous cases the influence of the 

 trader has been to bring about reorientations in native culture ac- 

 companied by new cultural vigor and social expansion. This has 

 manifestly been the case among the western Navaho (see "The Role 

 of Shonto Trading Post," pp. 290-297) . It has also been true in vari- 

 ous other areas (e.g., Keesing, 1941, p. 121 ; Lewis, 1942, pp. 60-61 ; 

 Mandelbaum, 1940, p. 187). Even the much-noted intensification of 

 conflict among aboriginal groups in various parts of the world (e.g., 



