Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective

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.