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acknowledgments Long-term fieldwork in another society can demand a disorienting combination of skills—modesty but confidence, patience but initiative, conformity but an adventurous spirit. Because the work requires intimate engagement with the real lives and everyday dramas of strangers, the dizzying amount of information and the sometimes confusing instincts for how to manage life lead naturally to seeking help. A great many people in Martinique helped me unravel mysteries, understand my defeats, soften the edges of my hardships, and learn to inhale deeply the rewards and joys of local life. My enormous debt to these people is one I will acknowledge with a lifetime of love and gratitude. For emotional support and concrete assistance extraordinaire, through each of my visits in Martinique, I thank the three remarkable women who started Transcript International: Ildiko Virag-Patocs, Yvonne Eadie, and Arlette Fadeau. I also thank my dear friends Louise and Geneviève Duféal for their good humor and many years of support and generosity. For unstinting help in generating valuable government data and explaining how the French system operates, I thank Frederic Vigée at the Chambre de Commerce and Jean-Claude Duville at the Chambre de Métiers. I also thank Justin Daniel at the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane for his warm, continued support of my efforts over many years. For his gracious gifts of time and knowledge, I thank Roland Suvélor. And for provocative insights and many wonderful conversations, I thank Marius Gottin. I also wish to thank all of my informants over the years, and the many artists , scholars, and government officials who shared with me their time and insights. Encouragement is important at every turn and I am humbled by the sheer number of people in the US whose generous efforts on my behalf helped me undertake and complete this study. My advisor, Victoria Lockwood , took me to French Polynesia and exposed me to French colonization . She has continued to champion my work and offer me incisive feedback that sharpens its quality. Historian Dennis Cordell has nudged my understandings and inspired me to become a better-rounded scholar, more interested in the long view of culture. Richard Price and Sally Price have been for me models of the integrative power of deep scholarship, personal commitment, and shared joy in a part of the world that does not creole economics xvi allow curious minds to rest. Their encouragement of my work is especially meaningful. Reading chapters or drafts of manuscripts is a heroic act of kindness, and one for which I have many people to thank. A number of people read complete drafts of my manuscript, including Rhoda Halperin, Blane Harding , Victoria Lockwood, Richard Price, Estellie Smith, and Rick Wilk. I also wish to thank Dennis Cordell, Carla Freeman, Ellen Schnepel, and Jeff Snodgrass for reading portions of this manuscript. Their comments, and those of the outside reviewers for the University of Texas Press, have contributed substantively to the final book. In addition, I want to thank my outstanding student readers, Andy Read and Chris Weeber, who helped me clarify concepts and keep the language accessible. Two other exceptional students, Jill Lange and Nicole Mallette, proofread the manuscript . I am especially grateful to my parents, Donna and Leland Browne, who reviewed a draft of the manuscript as educated general readers. Their questions and insights helped me figure out how to better present certain parts of my argument. I also wish to thank Theresa May and her tremendous team at the University of Texas Press, who made my first book publication a blessedly smooth experience. Allison Faust, Leslie Tingle, and Ellen Mackie all contributed impressive professionalism and welcome reassurances. Sue Carter is the most thorough and talented copyeditor any author could hope for. To her, I extend my warmest appreciation. I owe very special thanks to my illustrator, Rod Salter, who is a gifted wildlife painter first, but who agreed to draw pencil sketches because they “help my painting.” Mostly, I believe, he simply wanted to be nice. His work contributes substantially to the life of the book. I also wish to thank Dave Santillanes, the talented digital artist whose creative and technical expertise produced the beautiful Caribbean map. Thanks also to Michèle Nelson for her invaluable tutoring as I sought to comprehend the nuances of French law, institutions, and seven-course meals. Without many sources of financial support, my research efforts would have been far more difficult, if possible at all...

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