The Hottentot Venus

We saw in the previous essay that accounts of the Hottentot women differed among European writers by the early to mid-18th century. Some said that there was some kind of appendage hanging down from the labia minor of these women, while others implied there was some kind of flesh hanging from the stomach which covered the private parts. Leguat, the Frenchman who popularized the second view, published his work in 1708, along with a picture of such a woman. The picture, according to Baker, led to the development of another word, first in French and then in English, to describe this part of the woman. It was tablier or, in English, "apron." Though the OED informs us that we had an English word tablier going back to the 15th century to denote a chess board and the early 19th to describe an apron, we also have this 1893 quotation from the Edinburgh Review: "The tablier is usual among their (i.e., Hottentot) women and believed to be a mark of race." Hence by the mid-18th century we had the "Hottentot apron" as the layer of skin hanging down from the abdomen. However, recall that ten Rhyne's description of the vulva had been in English for many years. Thus, we had a contradiction. What does the European tradition do when it has such a contradiction? Well, it sends in the calvary or, if it is the 18th century, the navy. Enter Captain James Cook.

James Cook, Explorer/Pirate Extraordinaire

On his first homeward trip after circumnavigating the globe in 1771, Cook decided to stop in at Cape Town to investigate what he called "the great question among natural historian, whether the women of this country have or have not that fleshy flap or apron which has been called the Sinus pudoris." Well, you suppose that if Cook could "discover" Hawaii and map the contours of the known world, he ought to be able to figure out whether Hottentot women had something hanging from their stomachs or their vulvas. Well, Cook didn't actually investigate the matter but apparently got the report of a local physician who claimed that that he "never saw one (a Hottentot woman) without two fleshly, or rather skinny appendages, proceeding from the upper part of the Labia, in appearance somewhat resembling the teats of a cow, but flat; they hung down before the Pudendum, and were in different subjects of different lengths, in some not more than half an inch, in others three or four inches." Now, as you see, we are really getting somewhere, even though Cook is still relying on testimony of others. His account revived the earlier story of ten Rhyne, even though the phrase "Hottentot apron" had already made it into the common vocabulary of the country.

The Hottentot Venus

By the time the 19th century dawned there were not only amateur anthropologists and doctors getting to the bottom of the issue in Africa, but a few Hottentot women had made it to Europe where they were examined by anatomists. Indeed, the accounts tended to confirm the story told by Cook and ten Rhyne. Pictures of the long labia minor of Hottentot women circulated widely. But among the most interesting of events then transpired: a Hottentot woman known as Saartjie Baartman (her Dutch name--1789-1815) showed up in Europe to be exhibited in a sideshow attraction in European circuses under the name of the Hottentot Venus. What was exhibited, however, was not her "apron;" indeed, that subject would certainly have been forbidden in Europe at the time. What was of interest to her viewers was her huge buttocks. They are depicted in a cartoon as so large that small children could stand on them. As mentioned, Baartman never exhibited her labia minora. She died at the young age of 26 in 1815 of an inflammatory ailment. An autopsy was performed, and these results were published by two French scientists, one of whom was Georges Cuvier. Cuvier commended Baartman's memory and fluency in Dutch. But of significance for this essay: He gave a paper in 1817 in which he exhibited her genitals, including the greatly enlarged labia minora. Thus, the "true facts" were established with the authority of the greatest living European scientist. Many subsequent investigations in the latter part of the 19th century confirmed Cuvier's findings.

But the story of Saartjie Baartman doesn't end there. Her skeleton, along with her genitals and brain, were placed on display in the Musee de l'Homme in Paris until 1974. Periodic calls for her "return" to her people were voiced but went unheeded. Then, in the 1980s, Harvard Professor Stephen J. Gould got into the act by describing the case of the "Hottentot Venus." Calls for her repatriation became even more insistent. Then, when Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa in 1994 he formally requested France to return her remains. After eight further years of legal wrangling, France acceded to the request, finally returning Saartjie Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus" to South Africa on March 6, 2002. Her remains were returned to the area of her origin later in that year.

Conclusion

Not all of the other "Hottentot" words, discussed briefly in the previous essay, have as interesting a history as "Hottentot apron." In fact, I would venture to say that none of them do. But these essays illustrate that just below the surface of our supposedly "modern" world rests another one, full of misconceptions and biases, driven by prurient and economic interest, with swashbucklers and scientists, scholars and heads of state all drawn into the drama. Maybe we are not so "modern" after all, even in 2007. And just think, all I was really interested in when I ran into Hottentot was words for stammering! But, then again, this has been a most interesting journey. Thanks for joining me.

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