Chapurukha Makokha Kusimba-Associate Curator of African Archaeology and Ethnology, studies the technology, trade and urbanism on the precolonial Kenyan Coast. Kusimba's work tests models of the development of complex Swahili polities of the East African coast from roughly AD 700-1500. In particular, he has focused on the role of local craft production, especially iron production, in the development of the political and economic relationships between the East African Coast and its Indian Ocean trading partners, the early Indian Ocean trade as a stimulus for technical innovation, economic profit, and as a conduit for the transfer of technologies among East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, and the role of coastal and interior peoples in the organization, production, use, and trade of local crafts. In conjunction with this field work, Kusimba began intensive studies of our collections, particularly the Ralph Linton Madagascar collection composed of 3,700 objects that help us understand the rise of complex society in the East African Coast. Other Anthropology Department Research: Africa | Asia | Archaeological Science | Caribbean |Cultural Understanding | Mesoamerica | North America | South America | Oceania