Authority
How
have the institutions of authority in this region changed over time?
Government structures, kinship relations, voluntary associations
have all undergone radical changes over the past century. The techniques
of political economy, that is an examination of the institutions
that guide the production and distribution of resources, helps us
understand how local people perceive and react to changing power
relations in this community. This section creates a portrait of the
ways in which national institutions of governance and international
trends in commerce have empowered and disempowered local people.