Pursuits of Happiness

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).

• Introduction: Anthropology, Happiness, and Well-BeingGordon Mathews and Carolina IzquierdoPART I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDChapter 1. Why Anthropology Can Ill Afford to Ignore Well-BeingNeil ThinChapter 2. Is a Measure of Cultural Well-Being Possible or Desirable?Benjamin Nick ColbyPART II: WELL-BEING IN SMALL-SCALE SOCIETIESChapter 3. Well-Being Among the Matsigenka of the Peruvian Amazon: Health, Missions, Oil, and “Progress”Carolina IzquierdoChapter 4. Embodied Selves and Social Selves: Aboriginal Well-Being in Rural New South Wales, AustraliaDaniela HeilChapter 5. The Shifting Landscape of Cree Well-BeingNaomi AdelsonPART III: WELL-BEING, CULTURE AND THE STATEChapter 6. Well-Being: Lessons from IndiaSteve DernéChapter 7. Well-Being, Cultural Pathology, and Personal Rejuvenation in a Chinese City, 1981- 2005William JankowiakChapter 8. Finding and Keeping a Purpose in Life: Well-Being and Ikigai in Japan and ElsewhereGordon MathewsPART IV: NEW ANTHROPOLOGICAL DIRECTIONSChapter 9. Pleasure Experienced: Well-Being and the Japanese BathScott ClarkChapter 10. Selfscapes of Well-Being in a Rural Indonesian VillageDouglas HollanChapter 11. Well-Being and Sustainability of Daily Routines: Families with Children with Disabilities in the United StatesThomas S. WeisnerConclusion: Towards an Anthropology of Well-BeingGordon Mathewsand Carolina IzquierdoTablesFiguresBibliographyIndex

“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