Paper short abstract:

The new Charagua socio-political organization is an example of the Bolivian development’s politics under Vivir Bien paradigm. By analysing the implementation of Guarani’s Ñandereko, we discuss a concrete case where indigenous values and practices can create a true model of integrate development.

Paper long abstract:

The Bolivian State, according to the Constitution, is based on plural model (economic, legal, social, political, etc), which is focused on Vivir Bien as paradigm of practices and ethical principle. As the constitutional approach is multicultural, the Ñandereko - Guarani's idea of harmonious living - is one of the concepts under the umbrella of Vivir Bien in the section devoted to the ethical and moral principles rooting the values and the objective of the State (Sec.II, art.8).

If the Vivir Bien is a process that reinforces cultural identity and promotes an alternative model of integrate development based on idea of community, the case of Autonomía Guaraní Charagua Iyambae - the first autonomía indígena originario campesina of Bolivia - is an interesting example of how indigenous knowledge and traditions, the Ñandereko indeed, can build a new model of socio-political organization promoting a new idea of development based on inter/intra ethnic relationship and local cultural integration progress. In this perspective, the paper discusses the ethnographic data from the fieldwork among the Guarani people of Charagua (Department of Santa Cruz). From an anthropological point of view, the aim is to examine the guarani political strategy where the Law has a key role as agent of changes and promoter of differences. As a consequence we show how an indigenous group acts and interprets the development within a process of self-determination, which through legal discourse describe the relational dynamics of identity and the complexity of an emic/holistic approach to the so called desarollo integral.