By retracing the paths taken by several individual men and women who left behind their homelands and often their inherited religions, this article refl ects on the role of local institutions and the opportunities and constraints they represented for those living within their scope, either through birth or by migration. This study also enables us to view the inherent contradictions of institutions, which are often forced to fi nd a balance between economic imperatives and religious obligations (that could be more or less powerful) while infl uencing individual paths in a determinative way. These personal trajectories also allow us to reconsider the institutions themselves and to better appreciate the issues and the diffi culties they faced.

[No Keywords available]

[No Keywords available]