Making local identities: Ceramic production in 19th century Eastern Africa

which are do not precisely map onto the historical patterns of movements of
people during the 19th century. This material starting point forces us to think
through the structural constraints and agential choices that provided the context
for the production of particular forms and styles which we see as archaeologists.
Ceramic sherds in Eastern Africa stubbornly refute a simple
connection of cultural identities and ceramic styles.

Taking this as a starting point, I question the way in which ceramics may
have been a foundational part of the construction of new forms of group
identities in 19th century Eastern Africa. These were in some ways instrumental
– formed through the self-conscious use of style in production and
form in practices of cuisine – and yet came to be the manner in which East
Africans recognized new forms of shared subjectivities. Through this analysis,
I hope to show the manner in which we must de-essentialize the study of
ceramics in colonial contexts in terms of the manner in which their observable
archaeological traces related to the past discursive formation of identities.