Pursuits of Happiness (eBook)

Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective

Gordon Mathews, Carolina Izquierdo (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2008
290 Seiten
Berghahn Books (Verlag)
978-1-84545-877-5 (ISBN)

Infos

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 "e;the optimal state for an individual, a community, and a society"e;-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

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).

Inhalt

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

Produkt-Details

• Reihe/Serie: n/a
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Medical Anthropology • Medical Anthropology, Sociology
• ISBN-10: 1-84545-877-X / 184545877X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-84545-877-5 / 9781845458775