| dc.description.abstract | Abstract The world leading survey company Gallup ranked Paraguay the world's happiest country in 2015 (Clifton, 2014). Through my fieldwork during the first six months of 2017, I wished to review and investigate this conclusion critically. How is it that one of the world's poorest countries is also the happiest? What constitutes happiness for the people of the small town of Altos or the capital of Asunción in Paraguay, and do they perceive themselves as happy? I wanted to discover how people of both rural and urban Paraguay defined the good life and happiness in particular and how they experience and practice this emotional state. Throughout my fieldwork I discovered some characteristics of Paraguayan notions of the good life. Food consumption, family life and labour vs. leisure time are some of the repeating, key concepts of happiness in Paraguay. The Paraguayans I studied emphasised the importance of a good meal; however, I interpret this not merely as the act of consuming food, but I also investigate the social relations implied in this consumption. I never experienced any of my contacts eating alone; they shared their meals amongst family and often the extended kin. They did not merely eat and live together, but also worked together. I argue that balancing work and having enough money to fulfil their needs, and leisure to spend nurturing social relations, having a "tranquilo" life and attend or host "asados" were essential components. To better understand these topics, one needs to have an understanding of Paraguayan history and politics. A history consisting of colonialism, several devastating wars, dictatorships, massive financial and infrastructural flourishing and a following recession, has shaped the present Paraguay in several different ways. It has also affected Paraguayans notion of the good life, with the death of approximately 90 percent of the male population during the Triple Alliance War (1864-1870), and the resulting gender imbalance, amongst other. All of these factors are pivotal for Paraguayans notion of happiness, well-being and the good life. Keywords Happiness, Well-Being, Good life, Paraguay, Surveys, Food, Gender, Family, Labour, Relations | eng |