Anthropologists on Happiness

November 2012
Blog Post on www.beinghuman.org
The Adaptive Value of Happiness: Evolved Trait or Evolutionarily Useless Spinoff?
Dean Falk 11/29/2012 22:15

2012 Falk, D. Happiness: An evolutionary perspective. In B. R. Johnston (Ed.), second Vital Topics Forum “On Happiness”, the American Anthropologist 114(1):8-9.

March 2012
Anthropologists on Happiness

Abstract

Anthropologists on Happiness

What do anthropologists have to say about happiness? For some contributors in this Vital Topics Forum, happiness is a sensory force that colors and shapes human evolution and experience. Others consider happiness, or the lack thereof, to be a faceted reflection of the arrangements in society. All recognize the potential power of human happiness, where a distant memory, fleeting experience, or idealized vision can serve as a driving force in transformative change, prompting individual and collective desire and action to give new meaning, sustain life and livelihood, restore dignity, make peace . . . to dream again. [trouble, happiness, well-being, engaged anthropology]

Contributors

Barbara Rose Johnston, Guest Editor, and Elizabeth Colson, Dean Falk, Graham St John, John H. Bodley, Bonnie J. McCay, Alaka Wali, Carolyn Nordstrom, and Susan Slyomovics

2012 March, American Anthropologist, Volume 114, Issue 1, pages 6–18.