A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

world crisis has not been felt with the same intensity in the Andean region
as it has in Europe. In this sense the struggles for different conceptual
developments have their different nuances, as a result of having to
respond to different situations.
Here we focus on the Andean experience: we will show how interculturality
as a concept can be used as another way of perpetuating unequal
social relationships. That is why it is essential to establish that social actions
also involve an element of cultural emancipation. This does not
mean we should adopt a culturalist position, but that we must give opportunities
for mutual questioning among the cultures, about the contexts
in which such actions take place, and thus for the possibility of
introducing into many dynamic cultures (that is, those in a process of
change) the practical requirements for the life of humanity and of the
planet. In other words, the Common Good of Humanity.
Uses, abuses and failures of interculturality 117
For many countries, among them Ecuador, culturally different populations
have traditionally been analyzed, both in political and scientific
terms, as a problem. In Latin America we have inherited from the indigenous
past a phrase that clearly reflects the attitude of the nation-
State towards the indigenous population: the indigenous problem. In
spite of the ever-expanding publicity that the indigenous peoples of our
sub-continent have received over the last twenty years, both State and
non-governmental projects continue to refer to the indigenous populations
as being a problem. It would seem that the term ‘indigenous’ is always
associated with a problem or problems in the plural: economic,
cultural, social, linguistic, political, educational – in sum, problems of all
kinds. Clearly, from the indigenous viewpoint, the problem lies in the
colonial power structures upon which the order of the State is based,
as also in the social order and the cultural regime itself.
117 The reflections here are based on concrete experience in Ecuador, the struggles
of the indigenous organizations of this country and one’s own experience as a
woman. Thus we acknowledge the inconclusive nature of this text.
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