A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

4 Culture
THE CONCEPT OF SUMAK KAWSAY (LIVING WELL)
AND HOW IT RELATES TO THE COMMON GOOD OF
HUMANITY 113
FRANÇOIS HOUTART
The concept of ‘sumak kawsay’ was incorporated into the Ecuadorian
Constitution in 2008. It referred to the notion of ‘vivir bien’ or ‘buen vivir’
(living well or collective well-being) of the indigenous peoples. Afterwards
it was taken up by the Buen Vivir National Plan for 2009-2013.
Thus it is a central idea in the political life of the country. For this reason
it is important to analyze its content and understand how it can relate to
the notion of the ‘Common Good of Humanity’ that is being developed
within the United Nations Organization with a view to its possible application
in international relations. It is all the more relevant today, given
the crises that have been brought about by the deliquescence of the
capitalist system.
1. The origin of the concept
In recent years, the indigenous peoples of Latin America, after suffering
for more than 500 years from material destruction and cultural contempt,
have been experiencing a renewal of their collective consciousness. As
part of this process, they desire to and rites of human action in their natural
and social environment. There were differences among the peoples,
also various expressions, but they shared the same fundamental cosmovision.
Colonization destroyed the material basis of these societies and fought
against their culture and visions of the world, above all by using religious
arguments and symbols. It was genocide combined with ethnocide.
As has been said by Rodolfo Pocop Coroxon of CONIC (National Indige-
113 Paper prepared for the Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales on behalf of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, 2011
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