Routledge Indian Ocean Series

There is a need to understand the Indian Ocean area as a cultural complex which should be analysed beyond the geographical divisions of Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and South-East Asia, as its coastal populations have intermingled constantly. The movement of people, goods and technology make it imperative that spatial concepts and the role of material culture be central in the study of the region by archaeologists, historians, ethnographers and anthropologists.