We often do not realize that deep down economics is a battleground of competing anthropologies: implicit or explicit theories of human nature, selfhood and subjectivity, quiet beliefs about how we understand ourselves and our place in the world. In this podcast we bring together researchers from different disciplines that study economic phenomena, systems, agency and behavior, ranging from historians and political philosophers to economic anthropologists and development economists, to scrutinize the protagonist of their discipline: who is the Real Homo Economicus? What kinds of creature are they? What drives their choices and behavior? Are we still talking about the same creature?

To get the conversation started we use an experimental method: the Mythlab method. We use stories as a probe into economic thinking and quiet beliefs about the underlying anthropologies. In each episode we give our guest a story and see how they respond to it, and explore assumptions and associations in a playful way.

In this third episode we interpret a story about a mythical king who cuts a sacred tree and gets punished with insatiable hunger. The more he eats, the hungrier the king gets. The king turns to devouring his cattle, his estate, everything dear to him—until he ends up eating himself. What does this story mean? What does this story tell us about human nature? I try to make sense of the story with Erik Bähre.

Dr. Erik Bähre is an economic anthropologist. He is associate professor at Leiden University with fieldwork experience in South Africa and Brazil. He works among others on money, finance, violence, solidarity, and personhood (https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/erik-bahre#tab-1).

Hosted by Dr. Tazuko van Berkel [https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/tazuko-van-berkel#tab-1] and Connor McMullen. Edited and mixed by Connor McMullen.

Mythlab team: Dr. Erik Bähre, Dr. Aiste Celkyte, Prof. dr. Lisa Herzog, Connor McMullen, Dr. Sara Polak

The Mythlab-project is funded by the Dutch Young Academy.

The Dutch Young Academy (https://www.dejongeakademie.nl/en/default.aspx) is a platform of fifty inspired academics who conduct research, advise, share knowledge and bring people together, and who do all this while taking a special interest in young scientists and scholars.

References:

The Myth of Erysichthon has come down to us via Callimachus’ Hymn to Demeter (3rd century BCE) and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (8 AD) (https://www.theoi.com/Heros/Erysikhthon.html).