By Sebastian Ille, Ph.D., Lecturer of Economics, New College of the Humanities (NCH)
A few steps away from my university, the British Museum opens its gates to anybody interested in exploring human civilisation. Circumambulating its premises a short while ago, I discovered the Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth, whose sharing norms and sustainable hunting practices were reinforced by a collective identity relying on whaling and the stories of its origin. Nearby, a handscroll depicted a Chinese settlement in Nagasaki during the Edo period; a multicultural city where rules of exchange and economic interaction were defined by a trader’s nationality. A little further on, the illustration of a Meiji official portrayed a gentleman whose dress and posture was nearly indistinguishable of that of a late-Victorian Englishman. On the other side of the museum, I spotted the last resting-place of a man buried in the surrounding of the tombs of the First Dynasty kings. In ancient Egypt, his dwarfism was considered a mark of divine favour and made him the king’s personal attendant and a powerful member of the court. These are but few examples in the British Museum that attest to the intricate interplay of identity and economics.