Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective

289 Pages·2008·1.47 MB·English

by  Gordon Mathews

PURSUITS OF HAPPINESS

P H
URSUITS OF APPINESS
Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective
Edited by
Gordon Mathews and Carolina Izquierdo
Berghahn Books
New York • Oxford
First published in 2009 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
©2009, 2010 Gordon Mathews and Carolina Izquierdo
First paperback edition published in 2010
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pursuits of happiness : well-being in anthropological perspective / edited by
Gordon Mathews and Carolina Izquierdo.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84545-448-7 (hbk.)—ISBN 978-1-84545-708-2 (pbk.)
1. Quality of life—Cross-cultural studies. 2. Well-being—Cross-cultural
studies. 3. Happiness—Cross-cultural studies. 4. Anthropology—Philoso-
phy. I. Mathews, Gordon. II. Izquierdo, Carolina.
HN25.P87 2008
306.09—dc22
2008028586
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Printed in the United States on acid-free paper.
ISBN: 978-1-84545-448-7 Hardback
ISBN: 978-1-84545-708-2 Paperback
(cid:1)
Contents
Lists of Tables and Figures vii
Acknowledgements viii
List of Contributors ix
Introduction Anthropology, Happiness, and Well-Being 1
Gordon Mathews and Carolina Izquierdo
PART ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Chapter 1 Why Anthropology Can Ill Aff ord to Ignore
Well-Being 23
Neil Thin
Chapter 2 Is a Measure of Cultural Well-Being Possible
or Desirable? 45
Benjamin Nick Colby
PART TWO: WELL-BEING IN SMALL-SCALE SOCIETIES
Chapter 3 Well-Being among the Matsigenka of the Peruvian
Amazon: Health, Missions, Oil, and “Progress” 67
Carolina Izquierdo
Chapter 4 Embodied Selves and Social Selves: Aboriginal
Well-Being in Rural New South Wales, Australia 88
Daniela Heil
Chapter 5 The Shi(cid:286) ing Landscape of Cree Well-Being 109
Naomi Adelson
PART THREE: WELL-BEING, CULTURE, AND THE STATE
Chapter 6 Well-Being: Lessons from India 127
Steve Derné
vi • Contents
Chapter 7 Well-Being, Cultural Pathology, and Personal
Rejuvenation in a Chinese City, 1981–2005 147
William Jankowiak
Chapter 8 Finding and Keeping a Purpose in Life:
Well-Being and Ikigai in Japan and Elsewhere 167
Gordon Mathews
PART FOUR: NEW ANTHROPOLOGICAL DIRECTIONS
Chapter 9 Pleasure Experienced: Well-Being and
the Japanese Bath 189
Sco(cid:308) Clark
Chapter 10 Selfscapes of Well-Being in a Rural Indonesian
Village 211
Douglas Hollan
Chapter 11 Well-Being and Sustainability of Daily Routines:
Families with Children with Disabilities in the
United States 228
Thomas S. Weisner
Conclusion Towards an Anthropology of Well-Being 248
Gordon Mathews and Carolina Izquierdo
(cid:1)
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
Table 1.1 Potential Engagements between Anthropology
and Well-Being Studies 40
Table 9.1 Elements of Pleasure 205
Table 11.1 Fi(cid:286) een Dimensions (Consensus Literature Review)
of Quality of Life 236
Figures
Figure 3.1 Map of Peru 70
Figure 4.1 Location of Murrin Bridge, Central Western
New South Wales 92
Figure 9.1 The Context of Pleasure 204
(cid:1)
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Elinor Ochs, director of the Center for the Everyday
Lives of Families (CELF) at UCLA. It is with her support and the fund-
ing by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that a 2002 workshop brought
together scholars interested in well-being. An American Anthropologi-
cal Association panel followed, leading, eventually, to the chapters that
comprise this book. We thank Tom Weisner for his participation and
help throughout the years in facilitating this book. We thank Lynne Na-
kano, for providing a close and perceptive reading of the book manu-
script. And we thank an anonymous referee for Berghahn Books, who
was enormously helpful in suggestions for the initial manuscript’s
revision.
(cid:1)
List of Contributors
Naomi Adelson is Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology,
York University, Toronto, Canada. She is the author of ‘Being Alive Well’:
Health and the Politics of Cree Well-Being (2000), as well as numerous book
chapters and articles.
Scott Clark is Professor of Anthropology at the Rose-Hulman Institute
of Technology, Indiana. He is a specialist in Japanese society and cul-
ture, and is the author of Japan, a View from the Bath (1994), as well as
numerous articles.
Benjamin Nick Colby is Emeritus Professor in the Social Dynamics
and Complexity Group, Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences,
and the Department of Anthropology at the University of California,
Irvine. He is a founding editor of Structure and Dynamics: eJournal of
Anthropological and Related Sciences and has published ethnographies on
Zinacantan and the Ixil Maya.
Steve Derné is Professor of Sociology at the State University of New
York–Geneseo. His research projects have examined family life, emo-
tions, fi lmgoing, and globalization in India. His books are Culture in
Action: Family, Emotion, and Male Dominance in Banaras, India (1995),
Movies, Masculinity, and Modernity: An Ethnography of Men’s Filmgoing
in India (2000), and Globalization on the Ground: Media and the Transforma-
tion of Culture, Class and Gender in India (2008).
Daniela Heil is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthro-
pology, University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research (in New South
Wales, southeastern Australia and the Kimberley, Western Australia)
addresses the conjunctures and disjunctures of Aboriginal and “West-
ern” understandings of “health” and “well-being.” She is currently
completing a book, Well-being and Bodies in Trouble.
Douglas Hollan is Professor and Luckman Distinguished Teacher at
UCLA and instructor at the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los An-
geles. He is the author of numerous articles examining the interface of