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Regular version of the site

Culture influence on economic behavior

The regular workshop of the series "Culture Matters"  was held on 24th November. Prof. Andrey Belik (Center for Ethnopolitical Research, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, leading research associate) made the report "Impact of culture on economic behavior".

A. Belik argued that the concept of "homo economicus" who seeks only to benefit himself is hopelessly out of date. In the XX century abstraction of Economic human spread to all social sciences, going beyond the economics. But at the same time the idea ofthe relationship between economy and culture firstly expressed by Max Weber was developing, and economic anthropology appeared. But until now, most of mainstream economists deny psychological factors.

The scope of research interest of A.   Belik is studying of traditional forms of economic behavior. For example, he mentioned the Trobriand Islander population (island nations of Melanesia).   Their motivation of economic behavior is just a good job, not a profit.  T hey also pay great attention to the gifts that are kind of communication tool. According to Belik, "the natives have time for normal human interaction" in contrast to people of Western civilization, whose emotional needs are often not met in today's society.   Thus, in the opinion of the anthropologist, we have many things to learn from traditional societies in terms of economic behavior.

 

Olga Pavlenko

Trainee researcher