Pueblos indígenas y la “buena vida”: descentrando los discursos del desarrollo

Abstract

Indigenous Peoples have systematically lost out in Latin America’s development and modernization models, as these in the final analysis tend towards assimilation and aculturation. After analysing structural violence and the multiple interconnected logics of discrimination and oppression suffered by indigenous women and men, the author reflects upon the ways development theory and practice have been critiqued and upon proposals for “the good life” offered both by postdevelopmentalists and indigneous peoples. She puts forward the importance of diverse forms of indigenous autonomies, as well as the need to spell out social injustices suffered by indigenous peoples as a first step for these to be overcome.