This volume undertakes to research the major issues regarding the early agricultural occupations in Martinique. These include the dating of the occupations, the environment, the ways of managing the island area, the spatial organization of the village, the pottery, and the lithic tool kit. The author sets out to reintegrate all the information collected into the regional context in order to identify divergences and recurrences. The ultimate goal was to be in a position to discuss the nature of the societal development mechanisms underlying the beginning of the formative cultures in the Antilles. The program began from the existing knowledge on the eleven early Saladoid deposits already inventoried in Martinique and a great amount of fieldwork (the sites at Fond-Brûlé, Moulin l'Etang, Anse Couleuvre, and particularly in Vivé).