For centuries and across cultures, cowrie shells (Cypraeidae) were used, traded, and processed in many different ways. Sub-project 3 brings together perspectives from the fields of history, cultural and media studies in order to trace the historical meanings attributed to cowrie shells, the contexts in which they were used, and the shifts in meaning which they have undergone up until the present.

The sub-project focuses on the spatiotemporal constellations in which cowrie shells circulated, on the overlapping discourses in which they were embedded, and on the contexts of use as well as cultural practices (c. 1600–1900). Central to this research is a critical reflection on colonial knowledge production and archives, and the development of a methodology in collaboration with non-European scholars. The sub-project furthermore analyses the circulation and remediation of cowrie shells across different media – photographs, digitised materials, artistic works or 3D models – and the role of visual and literary representations in decolonial knowledge practices as well as contemporary uses of cowrie shells in fashion, jewellery, and literature.