04492nam 22006374a 450 991081628030332120200520144314.00-292-79734-610.7560/702929(CKB)1000000000454127(OCoLC)560319161(CaPaEBR)ebrary10185714(SSID)ssj0000132254(PQKBManifestationID)11129358(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000132254(PQKBWorkID)10028843(PQKB)11430322(MiAaPQ)EBC3443023(OCoLC)61593735(MdBmJHUP)muse2071(Au-PeEL)EBL3443023(CaPaEBR)ebr10185714(DE-B1597)588788(OCoLC)1286808311(DE-B1597)9780292797345(EXLCZ)99100000000045412720040109d2004 uy 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrCreole economics Caribbean cunning under the French flag /Katherine E. Browne ; line drawings by Rod Salter1st ed.Austin University of Texas Press20041 online resource (293 p.) "A portion of this work previously appeared as "Creole Economics and the DAbrouillard: From Slave-Based Adaptations to the Informal . . ." in Ethnohistory, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 373-403."0-292-70292-2 Includes bibliographical references and index.Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part one: Groundings -- Chapter 1 Elements -- Chapter 2 Social Histories: The Weight of France in Martinique -- Part two: Frameworks -- Chapter 3 Cultural Economies: Relating Social Values to Economic Theory in Martinique -- Chapter 4 Afro-Caribbean Identities: Postcolonial Tensions and Martinique’s Creole Débrouillard -- Part three: Practices -- Chapter 5 Adaptations of Cunning: The Changing Forms of Débrouillardism -- Chapter 6 Opportunism by Class: The Profit and Status of Undeclared Work -- Chapter 7 Women, Men, and Economic Practice: Different Routes to Autonomy and Status -- Epilogue Imagining the Future of Creole Economics -- Notes -- Glossary -- References Cited -- IndexWhat do the trickster Rabbit, slave descendants, off-the-books economies, and French citizens have to do with each other? Plenty, says Katherine Browne in her anthropological investigation of the informal economy in the Caribbean island of Martinique. She begins with a question: Why, after more than three hundred years as colonial subjects of France, did the residents of Martinique opt in 1946 to integrate fully with France, the very nation that had enslaved their ancestors? The author suggests that the choice to decline sovereignty reflects the same clear-headed opportunism that defines successful, crafty, and illicit entrepreneurs who work off the books in Martinique today. Browne draws on a decade of ethnographic fieldwork and interview data from all socioeconomic sectors to question the common understanding of informal economies as culture-free, survival strategies of the poor. Anchoring her own insights to longer historical and literary views, the author shows how adaptations of cunning have been reinforced since the days of plantation slavery. These adaptations occur, not in spite of French economic and political control, but rather because of it. Powered by the "essential tensions" of maintaining French and Creole identities, the practice of creole economics provides both assertion of and refuge from the difficulties of being dark-skinned and French. This powerful ethnographic study shows how local economic meanings and plural identities help explain work off the books. Like creole language and music, creole economics expresses an irreducibly complex blend of historical, contemporary, and cultural influences.Informal sector (Economics)MartiniqueWomenMartiniqueEconomic conditionsMartiniqueEconomic conditions1918-Informal sector (Economics)WomenEconomic conditions.330Browne Katherine E.1953-1722101Salter Rod1722102MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910816280303321Creole economics4122195UNINA