Suma qamaña in Bolivia

• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X14547501
• Author: Kepa Artaraz,Melania Calestani
• Published date: 01 September 2015
• Date: 01 September 2015
• Subject Matter: Other Articles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 204, Vol. 42 No. 5, September 2015, 216–233

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X14547501

© 2014 Latin American Perspectives

216

Suma qamaña in Bolivia

Indigenous Understandings of Well-being and Their

Contribution to a Post-Neoliberal Paradigm

by

Kepa Artaraz and Melania Calestani

In recent decades there has been increasing interest in academic, governmental, and

nongovernmental circles worldwide in developing universal definitions of well-being.

Governments have progressively shifted their policies on this concept and are currently

engaged in improving the well-being of their populations. Bolivia’s concept of suma

qamaña (living well together) is broader than “well-being,” emphasizing the importance

of harmonious relations between nature and human beings and providing an important

link to sustainability that current conceptions of well-being fail to make. Exploring the

concept is highly relevant at this historical moment because the Morales government is

engaged in a wide-ranging process of social transformation to implement it. Its translation

into public policy and the adoption of a development model consistent with it have proved

problematic. While the introduction of the concept into the National Development Plan,

the new constitution, and the Law of Mother Earth has addressed the need to move from

individualized understandings of well-being to collective ones, the government has not

overcome the conflict between growth-driven approaches and sustainability that is inher-

ent in all its legislation. Moreover, understandings of the concept are constantly being

negotiated and transformed, calling for an understanding of it that is rooted in people’s

practices and beliefs rather than in theoretical constructions.

En las últimas décadas ha habido un creciente interés en los círculos académicos, guber-

namentales y no gubernamentales de todo el mundo en el desarrollo de las definiciones

universales de bienestar. Los gobiernos han cambiado progresivamente sus políticas en este

concepto y se dedican actualmente a la mejora del bienestar de sus poblaciones. Concepto

de suma qamaña (vivir bien) de Bolivia es más amplio que el “bienestar,” enfatizando la

importancia de las relaciones armoniosas entre la naturaleza y los seres humanos y pro-

porcionando un vínculo importante con la sostenibilidad que las concepciones actuales de

bienestar no pueden hacer. Explorar el concepto es muy relevante en este momento

histórico, porque el gobierno de Morales está involucrado en un amplio proceso de trans-

formación social para implementarla. Su traslación en las políticas públicas y la adopción

de un modelo de desarrollo coherente con ella han demostrado ser problemático. Si bien la

introducción de este concepto en el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo, la nueva Constitución, y

la Ley de la Madre Tierra ha abordado la necesidad de pasar de entendimientos individu-

Kepa Artaraz is a senior lecturer in social policy at the University of Brighton, where he has taught

since 2006, and the author of Cuba and Western Intellectuals since 1959 (2009) and Bolivia: Refounding

the Nation (2012). Melania Calestani, trained as a geographer and an anthropologist, is a research

fellow at the University of Southampton and the author of An Anthropological Journey into Well-

being: Insights from Bolivia (2013). They thank the reviewers for their thorough comments on previ-

ous drafts of this article. In particular, they wish to pay tribute to Benjamin Kohl, who died during

this process of review, for the unstinting and politically committed role he played as an academic

throughout his life.

547501LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X14547501Latin American PerspectivesArtaraz And Calestani / Indigenous Understandings Of Well-Being

research-article2014

Artaraz and Calestani / INDIGENOUS UNDERSTANDINGS OF WELL-BEING 217

ales de bienestar a los colectivos, el gobierno no ha superado el conflicto entre los enfoques

impulsados por crecimiento y la sostenibilidad que es inherente a toda su legislación. Por

otra parte, las comprensiones del concepto están siendo constantemente negociados y

transformados, reclamando una comprensión que está enraizada en las prácticas y creen-

cias de las personas y no en las construcciones teóricas.

Keywords: Suma qamaña, Well-being, Bolivia, Indigenous knowledge, Sustainable

development

For quite some time, Bolivia’s “cultural and democratic revolution,” led by

the Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement Toward Socialism—MAS), has

swung between two alternative paradigms that are misunderstood or con-

flated, often within Bolivia itself. Both claim to move Bolivia beyond capitalism

and neoliberalism, but they do so in very different ways. The self-development

constructed by indigenous intellectuals since the emergence of Katarismo in

the 1980s places emphasis on the role of indigenous social movements in the

process of change and represents the new Bolivia in terms of “decolonization.”

Championed by intellectuals such as Raúl Prada (2012), it criticizes the capital-

ist model of development as a byproduct of foreign domination and suggests

that Bolivia can turn to its indigenous peoples for an alternative. An alternative

discourse presents Bolivia as part of an emerging wave of nations from the

global South that for the first time in history is challenging the Northern dom-

ination of the capitalist world system. The first paradigm proposes a meta-

phorical return to the Inca Tawantinsuyo, whereas the second takes its cue from

other nations of the Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América

(Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America—ALBA) and claims some

continuity with mid-twentieth-century revolutionary processes. These two

paradigms are inextricably linked in current political and intellectual debates

in Bolivia and in the national project envisioned in the 2009 constitution, which

incorporates indigenous principles and struggles to turn them into public pol-

icies that apply to all Bolivians.

One example of this lies in the interpretation of the concept of suma qamaña,

“living well together” under principles of conviviality and reciprocity (Albó,

2011a). What constitutes living well together is of fundamental importance to the

epistemological coherence of any society. In addition, the concept provides an

important critique of dominant understandings of well-being that is worth explor-

ing. Suma qamaña emphasizes harmonious relations with nature, providing a

link to sustainability that dominant conceptions of well-being fail to make and

marking a transition from an anthropocentric to a biocentric understanding of

humans as part of nature. Its translation into public policy and the adoption of a

model of development consistent with it have proved problematic. By exploring

the various aspects of suma qamaña that are apparent in key policy documents,

this article explores some of the contradictions of an unfinished process.

Well-Being: An Unfinished deBAte

The academic literature on well-being is vast and complex, spanning multi-

ple disciplines, concepts, traditions, and epistemologies. The study of