B.Ed. African History and Kiswahili, Kenyatta University, 1986.
Ph.D. Anthropology, Bryn Mawr College, 1993.

Technology/trade, and urbanism on the precolonial Kenya Coast.

Since 1986 I have been carrying out research on the Kenya coast with the aim of understanding the development of complex polities of the East African coast from 700 AD to 1500 AD. I completed the first phase of this project that involved the archaeological and ethnoarchaeological study of iron production in 1992. Since joining The Field Museum in 1994 I have continued archaeological fieldwork on the Kenya Coast with the aim of understanding: i) the role of local craft production, especially iron production, in the development of political and economic relationships between the East African Coast and its Indian Ocean trading partners; ii) the early Indian Ocean trade as a stimulus for technical innovation, economic profit, and as a conduit for the bi-directional transfer of technologies between East Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia; and iii) the role of coastal and interior peoples in the organization, production, use, and trade of local crafts, and the role of productive organization in the development of social stratification. The project is being carried out at the archaeological site of Mtwapa, Kenya and its hinterland. In 1995 I began a collection-based study of the Linton Madagascar collection at The Field Museum in collaboration with Bennet Bronson. The Linton collection includes nearly 3,700 items from all the main ethnic divisions of Madagascar. We have nearly completed a study of the textiles which we hope to publish as an edited volume next year. Other projects I am working on include the study of African beadwork (with Deborah Stokes Hammer) and the Zulu spears (with Peter Gayford) in the anthropology collection at The Field Museum.