Cowrie shells and cowrie money a global history / Bin Yang.
| Author/creator | Yang, Bin, 1972- |
| Format | Electronic |
| Publication Info | London ; New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019. |
| Description | xiv, 292 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm. |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from Taylor & Francis eBooks |
| Subjects |
| Series | Routledge approaches to history ; 25 |
| Contents | Global phenomenon, local varieties -- The Maldives: procurement and export -- India: in the beginning -- Southeast Asia: intra-Asian interactions -- Yunnan: an Indian influence in the Southeast Asian-Chinese world -- Why not in early China? -- Cowrie money in West Africa: connecting the worlds, old and new -- The Pacific Islands and North America: out of the Bengali system -- More than just money -- The cowrie money world. |
| Abstract | "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 dur©♭e 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"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Access restriction | Available only to authorized users. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| LCCN | 2018033527 |
| ISBN | 9781138593213 (hardback) |
| ISBN | (e-book) |
| ISBN | ebook |