Cowrie-shell divination is found in Latin America where it plays an important role in religions like Santería and Candomblé.
Though they share a common root, Caribbean and South American cowrie shell divination have subsequently developed in independence from West African practice.
While there are regional practices in Yorubaland where this is also the case, it is not as standardized and uniform as it is in Cuba, suggesting a weaker quality control by Cuban Ifá priests.
[6] There are a combination of 256 possible odu and a skilled diviner can interpret the meaning of each one, depending on the orientation of the reading.
Like a coin, the shell has only two stable positions on a flat surface, with the slit side facing either up or down.
The number of "open" shells is used to select an item (odú) which direct the diviner to a fixed list of oracular verses.