political economy and social change: the Bissette affair and local‐level politics in Morne‐Vert

What are the merits and weaknesses of Turner's “action theory”? In the case of local‐level politics in Morne‐Vert and the Bissette affair, it appears that elucidating Turner's redressive stage of social drama is difficult without first establishing explicit relations between “political fields” and economic production. While Turner and Swartz define political field to include scarce (that is, economic) resources, prizes, or values, the economy—defined as a particular form of production—is conspicuously absent in “actor‐oriented” political anthropology. This oversight is a major weakness in an otherwise significant advance over older forms of British social anthropology. Analysis of the Bissette affair in Morne‐Vert politics points to the strengths of an alternate political economy perspective. [ political anthropology, political economy, social change, Martinique ]