A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

logical, esoteric and simply ethnic tourism. The search for funds for projects
exacerbated cultural plurality to such a degree that the possibility
of building up a solid political project to face capitalism and the centralized
nation-State was slowly undermined. In this way ethnicity became
yet one more exercise in power, and in the colonial logic that imposed
specific conditions for defining the authenticity of indigenous populations,
which were always on the outside edge of contemporary life.
The discussions on authenticity, that enabled access to project funding,
gave birth to ‘essentialist’ positions, reinforcing exotic stereotypes that
were easier to publicize on the world market, like a kind of living museum.
Thus the old colonial trap set once again, using the concepts of
time and space to dismantle any proposal that came from culture, and
which could question the claim of capitalism as the only possible time
and space.
This way of understanding culture (as folkloric goods for tourism)
adopted the word ‘interculturality’ as its own, and its use was extended
to form part of the conditions for financing the various projects. Meanwhile,
the original meaning of the word was becoming blurred even inside
indigenous organizations. Discussions and reflection on how to
connect the richness of the symbolic, political, economic and educative
elements of the indigenous world with a State whose intention was to
unify and homogenize, were pushed to one side.
From interculturality to multiculturality
From the mid-1990s up to the present day, the search for a supposed
authenticity of the indigenous populations, oriented towards obtaining
resources for development, was expressed through the creation of
maps locating the various ethnic groups, defining how many different
cultures exist, where they are to be found, and, of course, specifying
their cultural particularities. The power of naming, of defining who is
who, where they live and how many they are, is a colonial exercise that
has not yet ended. But in this exercise of naming, demarcating and certifying
the authenticity of peoples with different cultures. nothing is said
about the mestizaje and even less about the descendants of other peo-
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