What is Sumak Kawsay? A Qualitative Study in the Ecuadorian Amazon

• Published date: 01 May 2021
• Date: 01 May 2021
• Author: Carmen Amelia Coral-Guerrero,Fernando García-Quero,Jorge Guardiola
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X211004913
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X211004913

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 238, Vol. 48 No. 3, May 2021, 35–50

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X211004913

© 2021 Latin American Perspectives

35

What is Sumak Kawsay?

A Qualitative Study in the Ecuadorian Amazon

by

Carmen Amelia Coral-Guerrero, Fernando García-Quero,

and Jorge Guardiola

Translated by

Margot Olavarria

A qualitative study of the main characteristics of sumak kawsay (buen vivir, living

well/good life) in the Ecuadorian Amazon shows that it has four constitutive elements of

which a multitude of interpretations coexist: an indigenous and nature-focused worldview,

community, an economy based on solidarity, and ancestral knowledge. Understandings of

sumak kawsay are rooted in the practices and beliefs of the communities interviewed rather

than in theoretical constructions of idyllic community forms, and in this connection differ-

ences can be observed between the academic “indigenist” view of it and local discourses.

Una aproximación cualitativa a las características principales del sumak kawsay

(buen vivir, living well/good life) en la Amazonía ecuatoriana muestran la existencia de

cuatro elementos constitutivos del sumak kawsay en los que colindan multitud de inter-

pretaciones: cosmovisión indígena y naturaleza, comunidad, economía solidaria, y cono-

cimiento ancestral. Las comprensiones del sumak kawsay enraízan con prácticas y

creencias de las personas y no con construcciones teóricas de formas comunitarias idílicas,

y al respecto, apreciamos diferencias entre la visión académica “indigenista” del sumak

kawsay y los discursos locales.

Keywords: Kichwa, Indigenous people, Ecuador, Tena, Buen vivir, Living well

Asking oneself about the meaning of “living well” is part of the human con-

dition. However, since the beginning of this century, we have witnessed an

interest in the search for an answer to this question that is unprecedented since

Carmen Amelia Coral-Guerrero is a professor and researcher in the Business School of the

Universidad Internacional SEK in Quito, Ecuador, and a researcher at the University of Granada,

Spain. Fernando García-Quero is an associate professor in the Department of Applied Economics

of the Faculty of Social Science and Law, University of Granada, Melilla Campus, and Jorge

Guardiola is a professor and researcher in the Peace Institute and the Faculty of Economics of the

University of Granada. Margot Olavarria is a translator living New York City. This study was par-

tially funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación and the European Regional

Development Fund (project ECO2017-86822-R); the Regional Government of Andalusia and the

European Regional Development Fund (projects P18-RT-576 and B-SEJ-018-UGR18), the University

of Granada (Plan Propio. Unidad Científica de Excelencia: Desigualdad, Derechos Humanos y

Sostenibilidad), and the Universidad Internacional SEK Research Project, Ecuador (UISEK-

DII-P0211718). The authors thank the Kallari community for its disinterested participation in this

research and the editorial committee and reviewers for their careful reading and comments.

1004913LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X211004913Latin American PerspectivesCoral-Guerrero, García-Quero, and Guardiola / WHAT IS SUMAK KAWSAY?

research-article2021

36 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

the Enlightenment (Beling and Vanhulst, 2016). This phenomenon has been

especially revealing in Latin America, where, as a consequence of the emer-

gence of the so-called twenty-first-century socialisms, countries such as

Ecuador and Bolivia have made the idea of “living well” emanating from indig-

enous Andean worldviews the center of political discussion. This idea, com-

monly known as buen vivir (sumak kawsay in Ecuadorian Kichwa, suma qamaña

in Bolivian Aymara, “living well/good life” in English), has been expressed in

the recent constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia as the state’s main objective.1

Although theoretical and conceptual discussions about sumak kawsay have

acquired international relevance in a matter of a decade (Caria and Domínguez,

2016; Gudynas, 2012; Houtart, 2011; Tortosa, 2011), there is scant research that

adopts an empirical approach to the topic with indigenous peoples.2 Evidence

from local testimonies is needed for an exploration of its multiple meanings.

This article employs a qualitative approach (participant observation and 30

semistructured interviews) to analyze the constituent elements and meanings

of sumak kawsay in the urban area of the cantón of Tena and in six parishes in

this area. The methodology recognizes local actors, mostly indigenous people

from the Ecuadorian Amazon, as knowledge-generating agents. The findings

show that perceptions of sumak kawsay are rooted in people’s practices and

beliefs and not in theoretical constructions of idyllic community forms. The

remainder of the article is organized as follows: The next section presents the

theoretical framework for analyzing the constituent elements of indigenous

sumak kawsay. The next describes the geographical area of the study, the sam-

ple population, and the methodological approach, and the following one pres-

ents the results of the study. The last section discusses our main conclusions in

the framework of the relevant academic literature.

SUMAK KAWSAY AS A THEORICAL FRAMEWORK

The term “sumak kawsay” originates from words used by communities on

the periphery (the marginalized of the marginalized) whose languages are mis-

takenly considered incapable of generating abstract and current thought

(Tortosa, 2011). Sumak kawsay is constituted as an alternative to development,

modernity, and the conventional concepts associated with them (Larrea, 2010;

Viteri, 2002). Adopting a postcapitalist, postsocialist, and postgrowth perspec-

tive, sumak kawsay falls under the conceptual umbrella of the currents known

as “postdevelopment” or “alternatives to development” (Escobar, 2010; 2014;

Gudynas, 2011).3

Current debates about the meaning of sumak kawsay can be situated on at

least three levels (Gudynas, 2011): (1) ideas, (2) discourses and legitimations of

those ideas, and (3) concrete practices such as political projects and programs

for change, government plans, and normative frameworks. This research is

mainly focused on ideas, for its main objective is to analyze the multiple mean-

ings of sumak kawsay in the narratives of mainly indigenous people from

Napo Province. The theoretical framework is based on what has been called the

indigenous or “pachamamista” stream of sumak kawsay (Hidalgo-Capitán

and Cubillo-Guevara, 2014). This interpretation is characterized by the