A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

his home but the close relationship between the human order and nature
embodied in his wife and her kinship network integrating the human
and non-human worlds. Love boils over, forgets its transitory nature and
becomes an act of destruction and self-destruction.
In this interpretation, a central concept for visualising the dissolution of
borders between the human and the non-human is, as already indicated,
that of becoming which, in Deleuzian code relating to material bodies,
is defined by reference to the ways in which these can become other.
We know that we are playing with problematic concepts that have precision
within a cultural history and complex intellectual tradition. Thus a
deeper comprehension of the knowledge entailed in the story should
ponder an alternative epistemology that puts the categories culture-nature,
human-non-human under suspicion, and explores the ways in
which the locus of the runa (machakuy-runa) is understood, lived and
imagined with regard to its vital surroundings. However, the nature of
the present work does not permit such an exercise. But I would like to
point out that a normative universe can be perceived in the body of the
story, the rupture of which triggers the tragic outcome of the events.
With which, it can be flagged up that cultural entities do not exist without
institutional forms and normative universes, and that their prescriptions
do not exist outside the narratives that locate and give them
meaning. Bearing this schematic approach to the tale in mind, we will
go on to explore forms of reciprocity within Andean tradition and from
them the process of epistemological invention of the sumak kawsay. It
is important to remain aware of two aspects: first, the reciprocal act that
leads to the founding of a family, a broad and complex system of kinship
between the hunter and the young woman which underlies their way
of life; and second, that the story, far from depicting a romantic vision
of the Kichwa world, ends in tragedy, demonstrating the fragility of the
relationships represented therein.
minka/minkanakuy as the foundation of sumak kawsay
Houtart does a good job of describing the depth and implications of the
global crisis of capitalism. His text summarises some of the many critical
voices that prove the unfeasibility of intra-systemic solutions and devel-
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