This case study is thus an example of several trends in human ecology research:
the progressive contextualization approach advocated by Vayda (1983) in which the investigator traces out whatever relationships are necessary to understand the given
social and ecological questions under consideration (and ignores others). It is an example of “classic” political ecology that links the levels of analysis. It follows other successful examples of a “social life of commodities” approach, pioneered by Mintz (1985), in which a particular commodity or production process is used as the lens to examine social, economic, and ecological relationships, and Bebbington and Batterbury (2001), particularly in recognizing the importance of contingent, historical events that shape local agency.