It's what you do with it that counts

Archaeologies of the East African coast have often referred to identity, cast in terms of ethnicity or class. This article argues that these categories, created by a particular approach to the data, are not sufficient to an understanding of the multiple processes of identification among coastal residents. It is argued that by focusing on human interaction with material culture, rather than assessing object distributions, we can move closer to such an understanding and can begin to go beyond the apparent restrictions of our data sets. This article focuses on analytical possibilities, asking questions as much as providing answers. By way of illustration a case study is discussed, based on the archaeology of Kilwa region in southern Tanzania.