A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

where I would also like to locate my contribution to reinforce, expand
and clarify some concepts that are closest to me through experience
and reflection. I will focus especially on elucidating the sense of the concepts
of Pachamama and sumak kawsay in the light of their relationship
with what constitutes – and this is my argument – a broader conceptual
system, socially, culturally and historically situated in the Andes. The
thrust of this essay articulates an argument that moves from the local
to the global. Starting from a Kichwa tale from the Amazon, in which the
key elements for understanding the flow between the human and nature
are set out, I then propose a seminal conceptual elaboration of the notion
of minkanakuy as the foundation of sumak kawsay. I also indicate
some of the cultural conditions and the practical range of the category
minkanakuy as regards the surprising cross-cultural spread of sumak
kawsay and the creation of a broad collective subjectivity capable of sustaining
a global alternative rooted in the Common Good of Humanity. I
conclude by very briefly drawing attention to some of the risks and challenges
involved in the use, diffusion and theoretical elaboration of conceptual
categories of different cultural and linguistic origin.
The machakuy runa: the metaphor of becoming and the rupture 144
In Houtart’s essay, the idea of defining what is understood by CGH, beyond
what is understood as “common goods”, is fundamental to establishing
its bases. This takes place within a new paradigm based on “the
profound union of human being”, a dynamic social equilibrium between
people, genders and groups and the cultural reconstruction of the historical
memory of peoples.
If “capitalism causes an artificial and mechanical separation between
nature and human beings”, it would be useful to explore the historical
memory and anti-/non-capitalist praxis of non-western peoples who re-
144 machakuy – snake; runa – human being, man. The gender of the machakuy runa
figure goes beyond the limits of established genders. With regard to the human
and, more strictly speaking, when it turns into a human, it appears to be masculine,
while as the machakuy runa, and with regard to the ants – its family too – it is feminine.
In Spanish we use the feminine article la when referring to the runa being as
snake.
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