Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective

Published by Berghahn Books 2009

Pursuits of Happiness

Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective

Edited by: Gordon Mathews and Carolina Izquierdo

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781845458775

Overview
Contents

About this book

Anthropology has long shied away from examining how human beings may lead happy and fulfilling lives. This book, however, shows that the ethnographic examination of well-being—defined as “the optimal state for an individual, a community, and a society”—and the comparison of well-being within and across societies is a new and important area for anthropological inquiry. Distinctly different in different places, but also reflecting our common humanity, well-being is intimately linked to the idea of happiness and its pursuits. Noted anthropological researchers have come together in this volume to examine well-being in a range of diverse ways and to investigate it in a range of settings: from the Peruvian Amazon, the Australian outback, and the Canadian north, to India, China, Indonesia, Japan, and the United States.

Author / Editor information

Gordon Mathews is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has written What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds (1996) and Global Culture /Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket (2000), and co-written Hong Kong, China: Learning to Belong to a Nation (2007); he has co-edited Consuming Hong Kong (2001) and Japan’s Changing Generations (2004).

Carolina Izquierdo is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for the Everyday Lives of Families (CELF) at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research has centered on health and well-being among the Matsigenka in the Peruvian Amazon, the Mapuche in Chile, and middle-class families in the United States.

Gordon Mathews is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has written What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds (1996) and Global Culture /Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket (2000), and co-written Hong Kong, China: Learning to Belong to a Nation (2007); he has co-edited Consuming Hong Kong (2001) and Japan’s Changing Generations (2004).

Reviews

“The chapters …are very clearly written…and provide a wealth of materials illuminating diverse understandings of bodily, interpersonal, and existential dimensions of well-being, and how these are fostered and threatened in particular social-cultural settings and in relation to national institutions and global forces.” · Journal of Anthropological Research

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Tables and Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
List of Contributors Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction ANTHROPOLOGY, HAPPINESS, AND WELL-BEING Gordon Mathews and Carolina Izquierdo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1 WHY ANTHROPOLOGY CAN ILL AFFORD TO IGNORE WELL-BEING Neil Thin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
2 IS A MEASURE OF CULTURAL WELL-BEING POSSIBLE OR DESIRABLE? Benjamin Nick Colby Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
PART TWO. WELL-BEING IN SMALL-SCALE SOCIETIES
3 WELL-BEING AMONG THE MATSIGENKA OF THE PERUVIAN AMAZON Health, Missions, Oil, and “Progress” Carolina Izquierdo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
4 EMBODIED SELVES AND SOCIAL SELVES Aboriginal Well-Being in Rural New South Wales, Australia Daniela Heil Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
5 THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPE OF CREE WELL-BEING Naomi Adelson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
PART THREE. WELL-BEING, CULTURE, AND THE STATE
6 WELL-BEING Lessons from India Steve Derné Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
7 WELL-BEING, CULTURAL PATHOLOGY, AND PERSONAL REJUVENATION IN A CHINESE CITY, 1981–2005 William Jankowiak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
8 FINDING AND KEEPING A PURPOSE IN LIFE Well-Being and Ikigai in Japan and Elsewhere Gordon Mathews Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
PART FOUR: NEW ANTHROPOLOGICAL DIRECTIONS
9 PLEASURE EXPERIENCED Well-Being and the Japanese Bath Scott Clark Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
10 SELFSCAPES OF WELL-BEING IN A RURAL INDONESIAN VILLAGE Douglas Hollan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
11 WELL-BEING AND SUSTAINABILITY OF DAILY ROUTINES Families with Children with Disabilities in the United States Thomas S. Weisner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228
Conclusion TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF WELL-BEING Gordon Mathews and Carolina Izquierdo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	248
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 290
Keywords: Medical Anthropology; Sociology

eBook

Published: December 1, 2008
ISBN: 9781845458775