Cowrie Shells as Amulets in Europe

Abstract

THERE have appeared in Man, of recent years, a number of contributions1 -articles or letters-concerned with the occult meanings attached to cowrie shells among a number of various peoples, and with the purposes which such shells, when employed as amulets, are presumed to serve. In those contributions it was observed, in respect of their significations, that because of the resemblance of their undersides to an image of the vulva they have been used to symbolize that organ, and because of some likeness of those undersides to the flesh about a half-closed human eye they have been used to represent eyes. Respecting the purposes for which they were carried by persons or animals, information and opinions varied between preservation against the supposedly injurious effects of evil eye (including therewith jealousy, envy, sorcery, and the like) and matters associated with the birth of children. With the world-wide uses of cowrie shells for amuletic purposes I have no intention of dealing here; the subject is one far too large for satisfactory handling, as a whole, in the present state of our knowledge. I purpose here to do little more than to set forth evidence seemingly indicating the probability that in Europe in general the cowrie served as a symbol, more or less recognized, of the vulva, and that its intended purposes included both the safeguarding of its carriers from the effects of evil eye and its analogues, and matters connected with the birth of children.