Pursuits of Happiness

Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective
1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-1-84545-708-2
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, 290 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 424 g

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mathews, Gordon

Izquierdo, Carolina

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizin, Gesundheit: Sachbuch, Ratgeber

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Anthropology, Happiness, and Well-Being

Gordon Mathews and Carolina Izquierdo

PART I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Chapter 1. Why Anthropology Can Ill Afford to Ignore Well-Being

Neil Thin

Chapter 2. Is a Measure of Cultural Well-Being Possible or Desirable?

Benjamin Nick Colby

PART II: WELL-BEING IN SMALL-SCALE SOCIETIES

Chapter 3. Well-Being Among the Matsigenka of the Peruvian Amazon: Health, Missions, Oil, and “Progress”

Carolina Izquierdo

Chapter 4. Embodied Selves and Social Selves: Aboriginal Well-Being in Rural New South Wales, Australia

Daniela Heil

Chapter 5. The Shifting Landscape of Cree Well-Being

Naomi Adelson

PART III: WELL-BEING, CULTURE AND THE STATE

Chapter 6. Well-Being: Lessons from India

Steve Derné

Chapter 7. Well-Being, Cultural Pathology, and Personal Rejuvenation in a Chinese City, 1981- 2005

William Jankowiak

Chapter 8. Finding and Keeping a Purpose in Life: Well-Being and Ikigai in Japan and Elsewhere

Gordon Mathews

PART IV: NEW ANTHROPOLOGICAL DIRECTIONS

Chapter 9. Pleasure Experienced: Well-Being and the Japanese Bath

Scott Clark

Chapter 10. Selfscapes of Well-Being in a Rural Indonesian Village

Douglas Hollan

Chapter 11. Well-Being and Sustainability of Daily Routines: Families with Children with Disabilities in the United States

Thomas S. Weisner

Conclusion: Towards an Anthropology of Well-Being

Gordon Mathewsand Carolina Izquierdo

Tables

Figures

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Izquierdo, Carolina
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.

Mathews, Gordon
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).

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).