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Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large in the family Cypraeidae.
Cowrie shells have held cultural, economic, and ornamental significance in various cultures. The cowrie was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money. It is most abundant in the Indian Ocean, and was collected in the Maldive Islands, in Sri Lanka, along the Indian Malabar coast, in Borneo and on other East Indian islands, in Maluku Islands in the Pacific, in Papua New Guinea and in 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 (the chestnut cowrie is the only cowrie species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of the United States; further south, off the coast of Mexico, Central America and Peru, Little Deer Cowrie habitat can be found; and further into the Pacific from Central America, the Pacific habitat range of Monetaria moneta can be reached ) 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 (family Triviidae, species Trivia monacha and Trivia arctica) are sometimes called cowries. The Ovulidae and the Triviidae are other families within Cypraeoidea, the superfamily of cowries and their close relatives.
The term porcelain derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell (porcellana) due to their similar appearance.
Nearly all cowries have a porcelain-like shine, with some exceptions such as Hawaii's granulated cowrie, Nucleolaria granulata. Many have colorful patterns. Lengths range from for some species up to for the Atlantic deer cowrie, Macrocypraea cervus.
The Classical Chinese character for money () originated as a stylized drawing of a Maldivian cowrie shell. Words and characters concerning money, property or wealth usually have this as a radical. Before the Spring and Autumn period the cowrie was used as a type of trade token awarding access to a feudal lord's resources to a worthy vassal.
After the 1500s, the shell's use as currency became even more common. 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 centuries, and their use as currency in unregulated environments persisted until the 1960s. The national currency of Ghana introduced in 1965, the Ghanaian cedi, was named after cowrie shells.
The indigenous Ojibway people of North America use cowrie shells which are called miigis shells or whiteshells in Midewiwin ceremonies, and the Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba, Canada is named after this type of shell. There is some debate about how the Ojibwe traded for or found these shells, so far inland and so far north, very distant from the natural habitat. 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. Finding the cowrie shells so far inland could indicate the previous use of them by an earlier group in the area, who may have obtained them through an extensive trade network in the past.
In Eastern India, particularly in West Bengal, it is given as a token price for the ferry ride of the departed soul to cross the river "Vaitarani". Cowries are used during cremation. Cowries are also used in the worship of Goddess Laxmi.
In Brazil, as a result of the Atlantic slave trade from Africa, cowrie shells (called búzios) are also used to consult the Orisha divinities and hear their replies.
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, and they were said to be associated with fecundity, sexual pleasure and good luck. (1997). 9781859860595, Helicon. ISBN 9781859860595 It is also used in the treatment of certain diseases such as rashes and ringworm when it is burnt into ashes.
In Pre-dynastic Egypt and Neolithic Southern Levant, cowrie shells were placed in the graves of young girls. The modified Levantine cowries were discovered ritually arranged around the skull in female burials. During the Bronze Age, cowries became more common as funerary goods, also associated with burials of women and children.Kovács 2008: 17 The cowroid was an Egyptian seal-amulet imitating the cowrie shell. Their imitations in stone or faience appear in the early 2nd millennium B.C.
On the Fiji Islands, a shell of the golden cowrie or bulikula, Cypraea aurantium, was drilled at the ends and worn on a string around the neck by tribal chief as a badge of rank. Cowries as a badge of rank in Fiji. (archived) The women of Tuvalu use cowrie and other shells in traditional handicrafts.
In Nepal cowries are used for a gambling game, where 16 pieces of cowries are tossed by four different bettors (and sub-bettors under them). This game is usually played at homes and in public during the Hindu festival of Tihar or Deepawali. In the same festival these shells are also worshiped as a symbol of Goddess Lakshmi and wealth.
In the 1940s and 1950s, small cowry shells were used as a teaching aid in infant schools e.g counting, adding, subtracting.
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