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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The venal Hottentot Venus and the Great Chain of Being |
Author: | Gordon, Robert J. |
Year: | 1992 |
Periodical: | African Studies |
Volume: | 51 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 185-201 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | images Khoikhoi San sexuality Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Women's Issues Cultural Roles Ethnic and Race Relations Historical/Biographical arts research |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/00020189208707756 |
Abstract: | This article argues that sexuality played an important role in the submerged anthropological discourse on the inhabitants of Southern Africa. It shows how the European discourse on the inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, especially the Khoi (Hottentots) and the San (Bushmen), underwent several changes of emphasis in the course of time. Initially in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century the accent was on the veracity of whether males were monorchids. By the mid-eighteenth century the accent was almost exclusively on female genitalia. European scientists were concerned with steatopygia and with what was variously known as the female 'tablier', 'tablier égyptien', 'Hottentot apron', etc. By the late nineteenth century the terms of fixation were yet again transformed. The Hottentots had been decimated and the focus switched to those labelled Bushmen. By the early twentieth century controversy reigned, especially in Germany, as to whether genitalia could be used to differentiate Bushmen from Hottentots. The author also pays attention to the role of women in Khoi society in shaping this discourse and he concludes that the legacy of this fixation with Khoi genitalia still permeates South African anthropology. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |