What is sumak kawsay or well-being?

Santiago Garcia Alvarez

The origin of sumak kawsay concept is difficult to track over time, although, many
authors agree that it takes strength since the 90s, when in the Ecuadorian case
the political presence of the indigenous movements emerged with force, as well,
came together a several internal educational initiatives and international
cooperation programmes that promoted the well-being principles. Something,
similar happened with sumak qamaa or living-well in Bolivia, which apparently
was set up by indigenous movements and by certain left-side intellectuals groups.

Gudynas (2011a) considered the well-being idea emerged from dissatisfaction
against conventional development, because to search alternatives to improve the
life quality and protect nature (pacha mama). But this birth does not imply that the
concept construction is done, it should be seen as a diverse construction and
commissioning. This construction is also multicultural, with contributions from
several indigenous worldviews and the confluence of several paradigms such as
human development, the ethno-development, among others. The questioning of
nature as commerce also contributes to the sumak kawsay proposal.

The word translation in kichwa sumak kawsay is important because it brings
complexity and it has to pay attention because that could lose its essence and
philosophical content. According to Huanacuni (2010), it is essential to find the
most reliable translations for suma qamaa in aymara language and sumak kawsay
in kichwa. Suma qamaa used in Bolivia should be translated as life in fullness,
though, formally, it translates as living well.

On the other hand, sumak kawsay used in Ecuador begins with sumak which
means fullness, sublime, excellent, magnificent, beautiful, superior,
comprehensive, symbiotic and holistic. Then, kawsay means life, be-still standing,
with which the literal translation of sumak kawsay would be the fullness of life,
although, formally, it translates as well-being, such as the Republic Constitution of
Ecuador picks it up.

Therefore, the concept of the sumak kawsay carries an aesthetic, cosmological
character, holistic, and politician approach. One way, that we consider valid to
simplify the analysis of this concept and to contribute to better understanding, it is
possible to focus on the principles that animate it.

In effect, it is important to understand that sumak kawsay is a life principle or a
life paradigm that is based on four principles based on the Andean indigenous
worldview and ancestral knowledge: i) Relationality refers to the interconnection
between all the elements; ii) Reciprocity that has to view as a reciprocal
relationship between the worlds above down, now, between human beings and
nature, a kind of partnership; iii) Correspondence refers to reality elements
corresponds an harmoniously, as proportionality, and iv) Complementarity based
on that opposites can be complementary.

Huanacuni (2010) says that the sumak kawsay is based on a community paradigm
that includes life in harmony and balance with the environment. He says it tries to
be an indigenous-original-community paradigm. The community should be
understood as the relations between parties that form a whole, whether human or
not. Cultural identity arises from relationship with the pacha mama, which set up a
way of life, also involves the memory recovery and ancestral history as a support
of a new vision.

This author makes a clarification about the community dimension because seems
relevant, in the sense, that community paradigm does not end in the cultural
dimensions, also carries the validity of a economic community, whose operation is
based on principles such as: harmony, balance, reciprocity and complementarity.

The Development Council of Nationalities and People of Ecuador (CODENPE)
defines the sumak kawsay or well-being as a new paradigm of life compared to the
Ecuadors developmental model, so:

In this view, the sumak kawsay in its maximum expression is to live in community,
fullness, brotherhood, complementarity, relationality among human beings, human
beings and nature, humans and spirituality. In this regard, underline that the
ancestral thought is eminently collective: necessarily relies on the idea of the us
because the world can not be understood from the perspective of individualism [...]
Finally, we can point out that well-being is not just a romantic speech but implies to
take on challenges aimed to define deep transformations in our societies, in
opposition to the capitalist logic of economic growth and profits accumulations
(CODENPE, 2001: 23)
1


The National Secretary for Planning and Development (SENPLADES) keeps track
programmatic and conceptual, about sumak kawsay in the Ecuador. It is conceived
as a contribution of the Andean ancestral cultures that goes beyond notions of
progress, modernization and economic growth. Accordingly:

Live is a bet by change that builds continuously from claims of social actors in Latin
America in recent decades, to reinforced a broader view, which exceed narrow
margins quantitative of economistic that permit the new economic model
implementation whose purpose is not the accumulation material, mechanistic and
endless of goods, but which add to the actors who have historically been excluded
from the capitalist market logic, as well as those forms of production and

1
CODENPE is a indigenous public institution who represent 14 nationalities and 18 legally recognized
people in Ecuador.
reproduction based on principles different from the market logic. Likewise, the
well-being is built from the positions which assert the revision and reinterpretation
of the relationship between nature and human beings, i.e., from transit to bio-
pluralism (quoted by Guimaraes in Acosta, 2008) current anthropocentrism, as
human activity must make use of natural resources adapted to the natural re-
generation (SENPLADES, 2009: 24)

Until here there is a consensus in relation to the concept of sumak kawsay, that
finally would translate as well-being, live in harmony, or live in equilibrium, which
implies opposition to western life-styles. However, authors such as Oviedo (2011),
who critically warns of possible concepts contamination by the western civilization
paradigm, in the sense that this translation of sumak kawsay as living in harmony
or live in balance turns out incomplete, because sumak kawsay is all at the same
time: the coexistence between diverse, mindfulness and wide life culture and not
only the human being.
2


Ultimately, the Andean ancestral postulates, that feed directly to the sumak
kawsay, are based on a set of principles with a strong spiritual connotation in
opposition to materialism and a holistic, as opposed to economistic approaches. It
is not a proposal closed and circumscribed exclusively by and for the peoples and
indigenous nationalities, rather, it has a claim of universal application as long as it
must be understood as an alternative and critical paradigm of capitalism principles
and its modern-rationalist support.



















2
What really worries Oviedo (2011) is to avoid confusion between well-being and live better, since the latter
would lead us back to the western and capitalist life paradigm. To our knowledge, this aspect is transcendent
because it opens the debate over anti-capitalist sense or not related to sumak kawsay.
Box 1: Main theoretical features of the SK


DIMENSIONES
FEAUTURES
Development Conception
Denies the development concept . It dematerialises the idea of well-being, centrality of
nature, austerity and explotation of local resources. (Gudynas, 2011a, 2009b,2004;
Unceta, 2010). Another form of life, harmonious relationship between humans for
collective coexistence among it and whit nature.
Underdevelopment Conception
There are not neither underdevelopment as a situation which then becomes
development nor as the development absence . It lives well or live badly. People suffer
from an abnormal development (Tortosa, 2011; Acosta, 2010 y 2009c).
Development Key Variable
Multifactorial: importance of local traditional and technical knowledge; diversity in the
production forms; cultural identity; nature enjoys rights (Escobar, 2010).
Development Political Strategy
Direct participation and self-management. Construction of multicultural dialogue
(Acosta, 2010 y 2009a, 2009c; Escobar, 2010). Construction of the plurinational State.
Process for other development
Claimed Indigenous worldviews; changes in economic priorities; coexistence without
misery (Acosta, 2010 y 2009c)
Source: The author