This book aims to provide the first comprehensive, multi-year, systematic, empirical assessment in the behavioral sciences of how well-being changes over time in a rural society of Indigenous People in the Global South.

Using data compiled by the Tsimane' Amazonian Panel Study (2002-2010) which monitored change in Tsimane' communities, this book aims to analyse important social and economic outcomes in a farming and foraging society of native Amazonians in Bolivia. It uses multidisciplinary methods through real longitudinal research to bring together three themes: well-being, economic inequalities, and the fate of Indigenous People in small-scale rural societies of the Global South to ask the question 'Why is a society that faces material deprivations, considerable economic inequalities, and declining material standards of living so happy?'

This book aims to provide a comprehensive approach to the measurement of well-being and how to track its changes, providing a platform for future generations to gauge long-term change. It will resonate with undergraduate and graduate students across the behavioural sciences, professional anthropologists who specialise in the Amazon and well-being, development economists, and senior researchers who are part of the wave of emerging interest of doing research in small-scale rural societies of the Global South.

About the Author

Ricardo Godoy is a Professor in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University and an MPA from Harvard University. He oversaw the Tsimane' Amazonian Panel Study (TAPS), which has resulted in approximately 150 journal publications and one edited book (in Spanish).

Book Information
ISBN 9781032951287
Author Ricardo Godoy
Format Paperback
Page Count 260
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd