ABSTRACT
With the kalimais of Chemin Cimetière and Petite Cabanne, the precise relationship of social to economic was discussed. These two kalimais indeed have the same history of founding by groups of families who used their own funds to build their cults. The symbolic rationality of these foundations highlights local social exchanges and relations – cooperation and neighbourhood – which have supported the recent development of local businesses and the recent production of pineapple on both internal and external markets. As for Petite Cabanne, the history of this cult has highlighted the impact of the closure of former sugar mills on the way in which the geographical mobility of people has intervened in social mobility. The small local history of these two kalimais has made it possible to draw the process of empowerment of the large Indian sugar plantation and the internal differentiations that have formed. If the kalimais were originally a gift of land made by the sugar mill to the ploughmen, the Hindu religion instituted preferential family ties and caste distinctions in relation to the private/public relations still served in kalimais.
