Cowrie

Lore & Background

The word 'cowrie' comes from Hindi, itself derived from Sanskrit. The term 'porcelain' derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell due to their similar appearance. The shells are usually smooth, shiny, and egg-shaped, with a long, narrow, slit-like aperture often toothed at the edges. The narrower end is the anterior, the broader end the posterior. The spire is not visible in most adult shells but is visible in juveniles. Nearly all cowries have a porcelain-like shine, with exceptions such as Hawaii's granulated cowrie, Nucleolaria granulata. Many have colorful patterns. Lengths range from 5 mm for some species up to 19 cm for the Atlantic deer cowrie.

Cowrie shells, especially Monetaria moneta, were used for centuries as currency by native Africans. Starting more than 3000 years ago, cowrie shells or their copies were used as Chinese currency. The Classical Chinese character for 'money' originated as a stylized drawing of a Maldivian cowrie shell. After the 1500s, Western nations, chiefly through the slave trade, introduced huge numbers of Maldivian cowries in Africa. In parts of British West Africa, cowries remained accepted for tax payments until the early 20th century, and their use as currency in unregulated environments persisted until the 1960s. The national currency of Ghana introduced in 1965, the cedi, was named after cowrie shells.

Cowrie shells are used in divination among the Yoruba people of West Africa. The indigenous Ojibwe people of North America use cowrie shells called miigis shells or whiteshells in Midewiwin ceremonies. Some debate has arisen about how the Ojibwe traded for or found these shells so far inland and so far north. Oral stories and birch bark scrolls seem to indicate that the shells were found in the ground, or washed up on the shores of lakes or rivers. In eastern India, particularly in West Bengal, cowries are given as a token price for the ferry ride of the departed soul to cross the river Vaitarani. In Brazil, as a result of the Atlantic slave trade from Africa, cowrie shells are used to consult the Orixás divinities. Cowrie shells were among the devices used for divination by the Kaniyar Panicker astrologers of Kerala, India. In certain parts of Africa, cowries were prized charms associated with fecundity, sexual pleasure, and good luck. In predynastic Egypt and Neolithic Southern Levant, cowrie shells were placed in the graves of young girls. During the Bronze Age, cowries became more common as funerary goods, also associated with burials of women and children.

Reader's Guide

Cowrie shells have held cultural, economic, and ornamental significance in various cultures. The cowrie was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money, most abundant in the Indian Ocean and collected near the Maldive Islands, Sri Lanka, the Indian Malabar coast, Borneo, other East Indian islands, Maluku, Papua New Guinea, and various parts of the African coast from Ras Hafun in Somalia to Mozambique. Cowrie shell money was important in the trade networks of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. In the United States and Mexico, cowrie species inhabit the waters off Central California to Baja California, as well as the waters south of the Southeastern United States. Some species in the family Ovulidae are also often referred to as cowries. In the British Isles, the local Trivia species are sometimes called cowries. The Ovulidae and the Triviidae are other families within the Cypraeoidea, the superfamily of cowries and their close relatives.

Cowrie shells are also worn as jewelry or otherwise used as ornaments or charms. In Mende and Kikuyu culture, cowrie shells are viewed as symbols of womanhood, fertility, birth, and wealth. On the Fiji Islands, a shell of the golden cowrie was drilled at the ends and worn on a string around the neck by chieftains as a badge of rank. The women of Tuvalu use cowrie and other shells in traditional handicrafts. Cowrie shells are sometimes used in a way similar to dice in board games such as Pachisi and Ashta Chamma. In Nepal, cowries are used for a gambling game during the Hindu festival of Tihar or Deepawali, and are also worshiped as a symbol of the goddess Lakshmi and wealth. Large cowrie shells such as those of Cypraea tigris have been used in Europe as a darning egg. In the 1940s and 1950s, small cowry shells were used as a teaching aid in children's schools for counting, adding, and subtracting.