Sara Baartman, The Hottentot Venus

by Science Source

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Sara Baartman, The Hottentot Venus

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Science Source

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Print shows Sara Baartman, a South African woman known as the Hottentot Venus, mostly naked, holding a long pole and smoking a pipe. A cupid sits on her exaggerated derriere. Sara Baartman (Saartje or Saartjie and Bartman, Bartmann (1770s - December 29, 1815) was the most well known of at least two South African Khoikhoi women who, due to their large buttocks, were exhibited as freak show attractions in 19th century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus. She spent four years on stage in England and Ireland. She was sold to an animal trainer who made her amuse onlookers who frequented the Palais-Royal. Georges Cuvier examined Baartman as he searched for proof of a so-called missing link between animals and human beings. Her body was exploited for scientific racism. Baartman lived in poverty, and died in Paris of an undetermined inflammatory disease. After her death, Cuvier dissected her body, and displayed her remains. For more than a century and a half, visitors to the Museum of Man in Paris could view her brain, skeleton and genitalia as well as a plaster cast of her body. Her remains were returned to South Africa in 2002 and she was buried in the Eastern Cape on South Africa's National Women's Day. Published by by Christopher Crupper Rumford, 1811.

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December 11th, 2018

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