Love in Intercultural Contexts: Encounters and tensions between different ways of loving

El Amor en Contextos Interculturales

Abstract

The main objective of this essay is to analyze and question the concept of romantic love, understanding it as a Western, hegemonic sociocultural construct intrinsically linked to capitalist production systems and patriarchal ordering. It is argued that this paradigm, expanded globally through colonization and the market, imposes a single model of relationships (heterosexual, monogamous, and unequal) that functions as a mechanism of social control and emotional consumption. Through a theoretical contrast methodology, this Eurocentric view is juxtaposed with the epistemologies of Indigenous peoples. It highlights that in ancestral worldviews, such as the Mapuche, there is no semantic equivalent to the "romantic love" of possession, but rather concepts linked to wholeness, respect, and community commitment (Piuqueyeeyu). These perspectives are grounded in "Buen Vivir" (Sumak Kawsay), promoting reciprocity and a spiritual connection with nature (Pachamama). It is concluded that it is imperative to move towards an "intercultural affectivity" that deconstructs the commodification of bonds to recover the sense of complementarity and balance, proposing new ways of "feeling-thinking" love that transcend the private ownership of bodies and emotions.