Social anthropology and social sciences in general have failed to take seriously enough the imaginary and narrative character of much of what constitutes persons, social life and organised society. An impulse to ground analysis and theorisation in illusory fixedness, such as essentialist notions of identities, persists, despite the abundant literature that undermines such thinking. It is easy to find texts which uncritically use identity categories not just as descriptors of emic perceptions and beliefs, but as etic analytical and explanatory tools or methodological variables. This chapter uses the concept of personal identity as a basis for a theorisation that avoids the pitfalls of reified and essentialist identity thinking.