What Is Sumak Kawsay? A Qualitative Study in the Ecuadorian Amazon region. Latin American

A qualitative study of the main characteristics of sumak kawsay (buen vivir, living well/good life) in the Ecuadorean Amazon shows that it has four constitutive elements of which a multitude of interpretations coexist: an indigenous and naturefocused 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 differences can be observed between the academic “indigenist” view of it and local discourses.