Local small business owners on Tobago operated their businesses from small shacks near the beach, which were torn down to build tourist rental properties, Levine said. The local people have no access to the beach. Women's businesses often cater to the tourist trade. Levine met a woman who wanted to be an electrician. She is thinking about selling her family's land to get money for the business.
Many people do.
There is less and less locally owned land. Many of the women are afraid to take out loans that they might not be able to pay back, Levine said. A natural disaster, such as an earthquake, might hit, or the economy could go bad. Levine discovered the islands while on a summer field school with USF Anthropology Professor Christine Ho in 1996. She went back to do a pilot study the next summer.