Looking for Pumpkin Pie in the Kenyan dirt

I am going to explore whether the New World definition of “creolization” is applicable to Swahili society during the 2nd millennium AD.  Rather than focusing on the “Africanization” of Arabs, or even vice versa—as has been recently criticized in archaeological discourse—I am going to look for identifiable points of negotiation, where the structural components and behavioral implications point to no one distinct foundational culture.  I will search for these analogs to the New World, and especially Chesapeake concept of creolization on the Swahili Coast by examining the archaeological record for this area and time period.