Abstract
This article takes a new approach to the question of identity politics among indigenous Amazonian communities, by relating it to brand theory. The discussion centres on the Kayapó of southern Parà in the Brazilian Amazon, who came into contact with The Body Shop in the early 1990s. Although it is commonly acknowledged that initial European contact with Indigenous communities proved devastating to their peoples, in their renewed contact with external forces, the Kayapó became known for strategically engaging with external bodies to obtain enhanced rights to territory and access to resources. In the process, a compelling narrative of Indian identity kindled an emotionally invested global audience's projection of Edenic Indian ‘guardians of the forest’, thus honing the creation of a pristine Indian ‘brand’. Framing the popularised Indian identity as a branding exercise, the author explores its appropriation by The Body Shop, and by the Kayapó's own use of what developed into an essentialist discourse. This article offers an alternative critical approach to the widely problematised Indian conundrum from the perspective of branding technique, by highlighting the mechanisms and interactions that together have crafted the subjects’ commoditised identity.
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Notes
These range from NGOs such as Survival International; government bodies such as FUNAI (National Indian Foundation); indigenous communities such as the Kayapó and the Yanomami; international celebrities such as Sting, among others.
While the Kayapó's political campaigns gained international media coverage, it largely missed the point: what Payakan was really calling for on behalf of his community was for any decision concerning the Amazon to no longer ignore Indian consent. (Ramos, 1998).
Gold and/or precious stone seekers. There have been numerous altercations between Indians in the Amazon and garimpeiros over rights to extract gold or precious stones from Indian territories.
Previously, the garimpeiros had only paid 1 per cent in tax, for the use of Kayapó land (Ramos, 1998).
A historically significant rally led by the Kayapó in protest against Electronorte and the Brazilian government's initiative to build a 6.4 billion USD hydroelectric dam.
In their chapter on ‘Global demands for Democracy’, Hardt and Negri (2005, p. 282) describe ‘ecological grievances’ as ‘the first to be recognised as necessarily global in scope’.
A theoretical concept adopted by Sherry (2005, pp. 48–50), brandscape is an intangible space in which brand image (brand meaning as an artifact ‘offered’ by the marketer – in Sherry's words, what constitutes your brand) and brand essence (brand meaning received and altered by the consumer – my brand) interact to ‘cross-pollinate and hybridize’ into a vast web of meaning.
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Bou, P. The genesis of elusive Amazonia: Narrative agency in branding the ‘Indian’. Place Brand Public Dipl 7, 197–205 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/pb.2011.16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/pb.2011.16