Pueblos indígenas de Costa Rica y Ecuador y la ruta de la interculturalidad para la reconstrucción del buen vivir cultural y comunitario
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article analyzes two highly contradictory processes of intercultural resistance among Indigenous peoples. The first, in Ecuador, focuses on the resistance for cultural and community reconstruction of the Kichwa people of Sarayacu, an Amazonian community that has launched a global initiative with its proposal for good living based on the concept of Kawsak Sacha (Good Living). The second examines the intercultural resistance of Indigenous peoples in Costa Rica, who are constantly threatened by proposed laws that diminish their capacity for survival and their ability to engage with state institutions to realize their rights. The most serious threat is the erosion of their ability to rebuild their community-based good living and the direct attack on their ancestral territories. This article is the product of a cross-sectional study conducted over the past two decades in local communities, interspersed with participatory diagnostic events and participant observation by the DESCAARUANDA/CEG/UNA Network. It also includes the review of official and legal documents related to Indigenous peoples. It has been found that both cases are presented at two diametrically opposed extremes of intercultural constructions; on the one hand, from interculturality for resistance, as is the case of Costa Rica; and on the other hand, interculturality for cultural reconstruction, as has been observed from the Ecuadorian indigenous movement, materialized in the global proposal of Kawsak Sacha, promoted by the Kichwa people of Sarayacu, as an example of a universal thought for the sustainability of life, as a whole.
Author: Deborah Leal Rodrigues
Institution: Universidad Nacional
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7221464576