The Rise and Fall of Cowrie Shells: The Asian Story

Bin, Yang

doi:10.1353/jwh.2011.0011

Cited by 35 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…People have used and traded cowries for millennia; a range of studies have examined the question (e.g. Egami 1974, Reese 1991, Kovács 2008, Yang 2011. West Africa is one of the regions where these shells were particularly popular.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘Lost Caravan’ of Ma’den Ijafen Revisited: Re-appraising Its Cargo of Cowries, a Medieval Global Commodity

Christie

Haour

2018

J. African Arch.

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The lost caravan of Ma’den Ijafen, Mauritania, with its cargo of cowries and brass, is widely discussed in African archaeology, providing significant insight into the nature of long-distance trade in the medieval period. While the brass bars recovered by Théodore Monod during his expedition to the site in 1962 have received considerable attention, the cowrie shells described in his comprehensive publication of the assemblage in 1969 have received much less coverage. This issue was addressed during a recent visit to the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) in Dakar, Senegal in May 2017, when the authors re-examined the shells as part of a wider project which also involved archaeological and environmental surveys in the Maldives, the oft-assumed source of these shells. Examinations of natural history collections of cowries, ethnographic interviews in the Maldives, and environmental surveys in East Africa were also carried out. Drawing on insights from these surveys, we systematically compared the Ma’den Ijafen cowrie assemblage to three others from the Maldives, focussing on four criteria: species composition and diversity, shell size and evidence of modifications. This analysis enabled us to shed new light on the nature of the Ma’den Ijafen cowries and their wider significance to understanding the role of the shells in West African trade networks.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘Lost Caravan’ of Ma’den Ijafen Revisited: Re-appraising Its Cargo of Cowries, a Medieval Global Commodity

Christie

Haour

2018

J. African Arch.

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“…Globally, the trade in cowries has elicited much interest, since cowries were used widely across many regions for some antiquity: from as early as 3000 BC in China (Peng and Zhu 1995;Yang 2011), in the Neolithic period in many regions of the Levant and Europe (Golani 2014), and for over two millennia in many regions of the Indian Ocean rim (Hogendorn and Johnson 1986;Kearney 2004). Cowries, both Cypraea annulus and Cypraea moneta, occur in the archaeological record in predynastic and dynastic Egypt, likely used as charms and amulets (Hogendorn and Johnson 1986;Golani 2014).…”

Section: Contextualising Cowries In the Iron Age: Historical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

‘Phalaborwa where the hammer is heard’: crafting together the political economy of Iron Age communities in southern Africa, AD 900–1900

Moffett

2017

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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In Africa and elsewhere, producers form a critical dimension to archaeological reconstructions of the political economy. However, few studies address the relationship between producers and the political economy from the vantage point of production sites. This study addresses the position of metal producers in the regional political economy of Iron Age (AD 200-1900) communities in southern Africa through an in-depth analysis of one production locale, Shankare. Shankare is a production and habitation site located in close proximity to the Lolwe mineral body in Phalaborwa. Studying the organisation of production, identity of producers, mechanisms of exchange and evidence of consumption at Shankare provided an important platform to assess producers in the context of the domestic and regional economy. Research at Shankare and surrounding sites revealed that production was characterised by a community of homestead based producers located in proximity to the ore source. Metal production took place in domestic contexts in conjunction with other activities, and with clear evidence of scheduling and cross-crafting overlaps. Producers acted independently and were well connected within a regional exchange system that facilitated the flow of local products and imported items such as glass beads and cowrie shells (Cypraea annulus). The study of producers at Shankare indicates the presence of a decentralised political economy resulting in a high degree of autonomy of producers and consumers in the region. Comparisons between the organisation of metal production at Shankare through time indicate that in both occupational periods, AD 900-1300 and AD 1700-1900, production strategies were contextually negotiated, with no clear correlation between political centralisation and specialised production. This research challenges existing models of control and the enactment of power in the political economy of the Iron Age. It has further potential implications for reconsidering the parameters for identifying power relations utilised in global archaeological theory. I would like to acknowledge a number of individuals and institutions that have made this research possible. Funding for my studies was provided through a grant-holder linked National Research Foundation (NRF) bursary facilitated by Associate Professor Shadreck Chirikure. Additional funding from the Erasmus-Mundus Association allowed me to spend five months at K.U. Leuven in Belgium from which I greatly benefited. Access to Shankare for fieldwork was granted by the Palabora Mining Company. Special thanks to Tim Paxton and the heritage officers Johannes Malatji, Adam Mhlongo, Thembani and Mandla who facilitated our research at Shankare and also contributed towards our understanding of the site. Guy Thomas,

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“…Archaeologists associate this pattern of mortuary differentiation and drum ownership with increasing stratification and the development of political leadership (Lee ; Yao ). By the fourth century BC, drums were the exclusive possession of local chieftains, who commissioned artisans to transform them into containers for caching cowries (an ancient currency originating in the Maldives; Yang ), agricultural tools, and weaponry (Figure ). Scenes affixed to the container lids portray chiefly alliances, battles, and rituals in close three‐dimensional detail, highlighting their owners’ accomplishments with lifelike effect.…”

Section: The Bronze Age Societies Of Southwest Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, five male elite graves (55 percent) in the imperial period at Shizhaishan and three elite graves (11 percent) in the middle imperial period at Lijiashan continue to display bronze containers filled with cowrie shells. Coins present a marked contrast to the transregional cowrie currency of the Bronze Age, whose value was based on rarity rather than intrinsic weight and time (Yang ). Not only did cowries have to be acquired from a considerable distance in the Indian Ocean, but also their primary association with drum‐owner graves suggests that their supply depended on elite circulation and distribution.…”

Section: The Bronze Age Societies Of Southwest Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Politics of Time on the Southwest Frontier of China's Han Empire

Yao

2017

American Anthropologist

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In this study of the Han imperial conquest of southwest China, I argue that time is a technique of political control in precapitalist empires and a source of power asymmetry that local subjects understood and actively sought to curtail. From the expansion of political economy to the invention of universal histories, imperial policies incorporate heterogeneous geographies and subjects into unified temporal frames, thus obscuring differences in social experience. Drawing from subaltern and colonial anthropologies, I argue that resistance to state time is neither restricted to modern colonialism nor realized only in moments of organized rebellions. Archaeological research from the southwest frontier of Han China highlights how native subjects, referred to as the Dian culture, enlisted the dead to detach ideas of personhood and political agency from imperial temporalities. A focus on the resurgence of former funerary practices not only provides an overlooked point of entry to local interventions in the temporality of social reproduction but also reveals how the making of biosocial contemporaneity entangled both imperial agents and frontier subjects. This study demonstrates archaeology's contribution to a wider disciplinary engagement with the intersubjective or shared time of our subjects. [imperialism, time, China] RESUMEN En este estudio de la conquista imperial Han del suroeste de China, argumento que el tiempo es una técnica de control político en imperios precapitalistas y una fuente de la asimetría del poder que los sujetos locales entendieron y activamente buscaron reducir. Desde la expansión de la economía política a la invención de las historias universales, las políticas imperiales incorporan heterogéneas geografías y sujetos dentro de marcos temporales unificados, oscureciendo así las diferencias en la experiencia social. Basada en antropologías subalternas y coloniales, argumento que la resistencia al tiempo del estado no es restringida al colonialismo moderno ni realizada solamente en momentos de rebeliones organizadas. La investigación arqueológica de la frontera sudoeste de la China de Han destaca cómo los sujetos nativos, referidos como la cultura de Dian, incorporaron los muertos para separar las ideas de condición de persona y agencia política de las temporalidades imperiales. Un enfoque en el resurgimiento de prácticas funerarias antiguas no sólo provee un punto de entrada pasado por alto a las intervenciones locales en la temporalidad de la reproducción social sino también revela cómo la producción de la contemporaneidad biosocial involucró tanto a los agentes imperiales como a los sujetos de la frontera. Este estudio demuestra la contribución de la arqueología a un abordaje disciplinario más amplio con la intersubjetividad o el tiempo compartido de nuestros sujetos. [imperialismo, tiempo, China]

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The Rise and Fall of Cowrie Shells: The Asian Story

Cited by 35 publications

References 17 publications

The ‘Lost Caravan’ of Ma’den Ijafen Revisited: Re-appraising Its Cargo of Cowries, a Medieval Global Commodity

The ‘Lost Caravan’ of Ma’den Ijafen Revisited: Re-appraising Its Cargo of Cowries, a Medieval Global Commodity

‘Phalaborwa where the hammer is heard’: crafting together the political economy of Iron Age communities in southern Africa, AD 900–1900

Politics of Time on the Southwest Frontier of China's Han Empire

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