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Monetary use
Cowrie shells, especially Monetaria moneta, were used for centuries as currency by native Africans. Caravans of Arab traders from the Sahara Desert were likely the first to introduce Monetaria moneta shells into West Africa. These shipments likely originated from the Maldives, and possibly arrived in West Africa as early as the tenth century. Later, during the fifteenth century, a different species of cowry, Monetaria annulus, became more prominent in West Africa. These shells were sourced from the East African coast and were shipped via maritime trading routes in the Atlantic. After this period, the use of cowries as monetary objects became even more common, especially in the Empire of Mali. European nations, including the Portuguese, French, British, and Dutch, introduced huge numbers of Maldivian cowries in Africa primarily to support the slave trade. By the eighteenth century, the cowrie had become the currency of choice along the trade routes of Africa. The Ghanaian unit of currency known as the Ghanaian cedi was named after cowrie shells. Starting over three thousand years ago, cowrie shells, or copies of the shells, were used as Chinese currency. They were also used as means of exchange in India.

The Classical Chinese character for money (貝) 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.

Ritual use
The Ojibway aboriginal people in North America use cowrie shells which are called sacred 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 Ojibway 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 tribe or group in the area, who may have obtained them through an extensive trade network in the ancient past.

In Brazil, as a result of the Atlantic slave trade from Africa, cowrie shells (called búzios) are also played as used to consult the Orixás 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.


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