Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective
Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective by Gordon Mathews and Carolina Izquierdo
English | 2008 | ISBN: 1845454480, 1845457080 | 290 pages | PDF | 1,5 MB
English | 2008 | ISBN: 1845454480, 1845457080 | 290 pages | PDF | 1,5 MB
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.