Cowrie Shells and Cowrie Money ― A Global History

Originating in the sea, especially in the waters surrounding the low-lying islands of the Maldives, Cypraea moneta (sometimes confused with Cypraea annulus) was transported to various parts of Afro-Eurasia in the prehistoric era, and in many cases, it was gradually transformed into a form of money in various societies for a long span of time. Yang provides a global examination of cowrie money within and beyond Afro-Eurasia from the archaeological period to the early twentieth century.

By focusing on cowrie money in Indian, Chinese, Southeast Asian and West African societies and shell money in Pacific and North American societies, Yang synthsises and illustrates the economic and cultural connections, networks and interactions over a longue durée and in a cross-regional context. Analysing locally varied experiences of cowrie money from a global perspective, Yang argued that cowrie money was the first global money that shaped Afro-Eurasian societies both individually and collectively. He proposes a paradigm of the cowrie money world that engages local, regional, transregional and global themes.

Bin Yang is Associate Professor of History at the University of Macau. His research interests include Chinese history, frontier and ethnic studies, Sino-Southeast Asian-Indian triangular interactions, world history, and history of science, technology and medicine. His dissertation "Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan (Second Century BCE – Twentieth Century CE)" won the 2004 Gutenberg-e Prize of the American Historical Association, and it was published online as well as in print by Columbia University Press. He has published research papers in some internationally prestigious journals such as The China Quarterly, Modern Asian Studies, Journal of World History, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, and Journal of Women’s History. He is one of the founding member of the Asian Association of World Historians and serves as Manning Editor of the Asian Reviews of World Histories.