"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 m...

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Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Yang, Bin 1972- (Author)
Format:	Electronic eBook
Language:	English
Published:	Abingdon, Oxon Routledge 2019
Series:	Routledge approaches to history Routledge approaches to history 25
Subjects:	Shell money Cowries Money / History
Online Access:	Volltext
Summary:	"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, arguing that cowrie money was the first global money that shaped Afro-Eurasian societies both individually and collectively, proposing a paradigm of the cowrie world and thus engaging many local, regional, transregional and global themes"--
Physical Description:	1 online resource
ISBN:	9780429489587 0429489587 9780429952333 0429952333