The Body Shop Controversy
an Rocha’s report on the suing of
The Body Shop by Chief Pykati-
Re of the Brazilian Kayapo indige-
nous group contained substantial
inaccuracies, not least its incorrect
and misleading headline, “Amazon
Chief Sues The Body Shop”
[July/August, 1996]. Pykati-Re did
not sue The Body Shop, nor did he
have any intention of doing so.
Rocha reports that Pykati-Re
announced his intention of suing
The Body Shop for the “unautho-
rized use of [his] image for public-
ity ends.” The source for this quote
is correspondence between Pykati-
Re and his lawyer. Pykati-Re was
duped into writing this note by a
former employee of The Body
Shop, Saulo Petean, who, Rocha
says, was fired for “stirring up trou-
ble”-making this correspondence
neither a reliable nor an accurate
expression of Pykati-Re’s wishes.
In a letter to his lawyer dated
March 2, 1996, Pykati-Re writes, “Saulo made me sign a paper for
you without me understanding what
the paper was about. He has always
done this to us. The Indian cannot
read well and does not understand
the things of white men. I want to
tell you not to speak to Saulo in
Redenqso. Saulo does not represent
me.”
Rocha reports that Petean’s accu-
sations are borne out by an evalua-
tion undertaken in 1995. This is tau-
tological: it was Petean himself who
provided the information that misled
the external evaluators in the first
place.
Petean’s contract was not renewed
because of financial and management
irregularities, which are currently
under investigation.
In sum, Rocha’s report is based on
information of suspect validity. The
Body Shop began its trading rela-
Readers are invited to address letters to The Editors, NACLA Report on the Americas, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 454, New York, NY 10115. Letters can be sent by e-mail to: NACLA @igc.apc.org.
tionship with Kayapo villages at
their invitation. We are committed to
a process of continuous improve-
ment of that relationship as long as it
is appropriate for the communities, welcomed by them, and for as long
as it takes to build an example of
sustainable trade.
Adrian Hodges
The Body Shop
London, England
Jan Rocha replies:
T he title of the story was not
written by me, but by the
NACLA editors. Nevertheless, my
article clearly states that Pykati-Re
announced his intention of suing
The Body Shop and then backed
down because the company offered
a new contract for the use of the
Kayapo image.
I stated that Saulo Petean was
fired after being accused of stirring
up trouble. Petean, who has been
consistently libeled by The Body
Shop in its replies to criticisms, is
suing The Body Shop for the non-
payment of benefits due him under
Brazilian labor laws. The police
investigation which was opened
against Petean at The Body Shop’s
request has been shelved.
The 1995 evaluation–commis-
sioned by The Body Shop itself–
was carried out by two respected
Brazilian anthropologists, lara
Ferraz and Rubem Almeida,
together with Pat Stocker, an experi-
enced British development worker.
They spent 30 days in the area. To
suggest that they were “misled” by
Petean is insulting to them and to
their carefully researched report.
The Body Shop’s response to crit-
icism is to imply that Indians and
evaluators are fools who are
“duped” and “misled,” and the man
it employed for five years is a crim-
inal. Yet the evaluators’ unanswered
question remains: Are The Body
Shop’s trading links with the
Kayapo “aid,” or are they a deliber-
ate profitable investment to market
the company’s name?
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