I will be advancing an argument on the early representations of Sarah Baartman in comparison to her representation in our modern society, beginning in the course of the early eighteenth century. In my research, I will use Sarah Baartman as a means of showing how medical and scientific discourses work to construct images of sexual and racial differences. After her death in in 1815, her body was given to the comparative anatomist, Georges Cuvier, who dissected and preserved the body as an object of scientific research. The question of how Sarah Baartman was both raw material and a product of scientific racism forms the focus of this research task.
A long time ago, possibly two hundred years ago, many major discoveries were made by scientists. The chemistry, mathematics and technology of that time was discovered and/or developed. However, one thing they could not understand was genetics which then resulted in them making assumptions and their own conclusions about different ethnic groups. Most of these assumptions were false, which is why they are classified as pseudo-scientific. These same assumptions and conclusions led to prejudice and discrimination for the races that were “classified” as inferior - the most prominent of these being black Africans. (Grant, 1999)
Cuvier’s conclusion regarding her anatomy was that all people of African descent were by nature, inferior to Europeans. Cuvier’s findings informed scientific racism (a pseudo science, as will be argued.) and concluded that she was a link between animals and humans. Baartman’s physical features were the object of interest for Europeans who had not only assumed that the more primitive you were, the more you were. Furthermore, she was a reflection of their fears and discre...
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...ration for the discomfort caused by these actions. Baartman was the ‘pig’ of scientific racism. She was studied like an animal for 3 days, with Cuvier and his team observing the way that she eats, sleeps and reacts to certain things. (Maseko, 1998).
After her death, she was dissected like an animal, with her abnormally extended Labia put into a jar. Not only were these discourses racist, but they were also sexist. 200 years later, Baartman is a product and example of scientific racism in the 19th Century. She is also a heroic figure in South Africa for the hyper-sexualization, racism, classism, and sexism she had to endure in a completely foreign country and environment. South African women today, use Baartman as inspiration to stand up for their rights. Furthermore, the country uses Baartman as an example of preserving South Africa’s heritage and appreciating it.
Gender, Race and Nation: The Comparative Anatomy of “Hottentot” Women in Europe 1815-17 was written by Anne Fausto-Sterling. Another similarity in both texts is the way that black women were compared to animals and other objects as a way of de-humanizing them. Baartman was often compared to an ape because of her stature, in the text the author states, “The hottentot worked as a double trope. As a woman of color, she served as primitive: she was both female and racial link to nature- two for the price of one.”
Throughout history race has been a pivotal part in decision making. Since the first interaction of populations from different geographical regions, with physical differences, the assumption has been that these differences were fundamental. These physical differences, based mainly on the color of skin, have been classified as race. Over time physicians have tried to pinpoint certain characteristics that are more prominent in one race than another, in order to prove race and that there are subspecies of humans. One of the first examples of this is Johann Blumenbach work “On the Natural Variety of Mankind”. In his work Blumenbach introduced five categories of race; caucasian. mongolian, malayan ethiopian, and american. These classifications revolved around not only skin color, but also physical morphology. Blumenbach supported this by using a collection of physical evidence, like the structure of the cranium, to support his thesis. This marked a shift in thinking of race in terms of geography to physical appearance. Published in 1775, Blumenbach’s dissertation started the scientific approach to finding
Rachel Dein is a London Based artist, who studied Fine Arts at Middlesex University . She is most famously known for her tiles made of cement and plaster featuring molds of flowers. She currently runs and owns the Tactile Studio in North London to support herself and her three children. Before setting up her own studio, but after going to art school, she decided to take up an apprenticeship at The Royal Opera House and later branched out to other theaters to continue her prop making career including The English National Opera, The West End Theaters, London Transport Museum and Selfridges Christmas windows. Her time in prop making allowed her to explore her love of theatre, film, and opera while expanding her knowledge of 3d design. She also enjoys gardening, which is where she has gotten some of the materials for her craft.
Helene Melanie Lebel, one of two daughters born to a Jewish family, was raised as a Catholic in Vienna. Her father died during World War I when Helene was only 5 years old, and when Helene was 15, her mother remarried. Helene entered law school, but at age 19, she started showing signs of an illness. By 1935, her illness became so bad severe that she had to give up her law studies. Helene was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and was placed in Vienna’s Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital. Although her condition improved in 1940, Helene was forced to stay in Steinhof. Her parents believed she would soon be released, but in August, her mother was informed that Helene was transferred to Niedernhart. She was actually transported to Brandenburg, Germany where she was led into a gas chamber or room? disguised as a shower room, and was gassed to death. Helene was listed as dying in her room of “acute schizophrenic excitement”.
Every individual cares about how they appear to others; their shape and in this informal, narrative essay titled Chicken-Hips, Canadian journalist and producer Catherine Pigott tells her story on her trip to Gambia and her body appearance. In this compelling essay the thesis is implicit and the implied thesis is about how women are judged differently on their appearance in different parts of the world, as various cultures and individuals have a different perception on what ideal beauty is. In this essay Pigott writes about her trip to Africa specifically Gambia and how upon arriving there she was judged to be too slim for a woman. She goes to write about how differently she would be judged back home by mentioning “in my county we deny ourselves
by analyzing the case of Sarah Baartman as the quintessential Black female erotic body. The viewing of black women’s bodies as animalistic explorative and subsequent centuries of colonialism but also connects all hegemonic movements to surveillance and defining/redefining of the black female body.
In nineteenth century, a discourse on homosexuality started to occur; meanwhile, boundaries between black and white became more and more clear. (16) It was the era when the issues that were considered as minority started to appear, and it was also the time when people were reinforcing their ideal “social norms” into the society. It was a dark age for LGBT people, African American people and female. In the article, Scientific Racism and the Homosexual Body, the author, Siobhan Sommerville, makes a strong connection between scientific racism and sexology and women’s bodies. “Although some historians of the scientific discourse on sexuality have included brief acknowledgement of nineteenth century discourses of racial difference in their work,
In America, essentially everyone is classified in terms of race in a way. We are all familiar with terms such as Caucasian, African-American, Asian, etc. Most Americans think of these terms as biological or natural classifications; meaning that all people of a certain race share similarities on their D.N.A. that are different and sets that particular race apart from all the other races. However, recent genetic studies show that there’s no scientific basis for the socially popular idea that race is a valid taxonomy of human biological difference. This means that humans are not divided into different groups through genetics or nature. Contrary to scientific studies, social beliefs are reflected through racial realism. Racial realists believe that being of a particular race does not only have phenotypical values (i.e. skin color, facial features, etc.), but also broadens its effects to moral, intellectual and spiritual characteristics.
Roberts, Dorothy E. Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. New York: Pantheon, 1997. Print.
Jordanova, Ludmilla. Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the 18th and 20th Centuries. London: Harrester Wheatsheaf, 1989.
In 1758 a Swedish botanist named Carolus Linnaeus established the classification system still in use for various forms of life. He listed four categories that he labeled as "varieties" of the human species. To each he attributed inherited biological as well as learned cultural characteristics. He described Homo European as light-skinned, blond, and governed by laws; Homo American was copper-colored and was regulated by customs; Homo Asiatic was sooty and dark-eyed and governed by opinions; Homo African was black and indolent and governed by impulse. We can in retrospect recognize the ethnocentric assumptions involved in these descriptions, which imply a descending order of prestige. Most striking is the labeling of the four varieties as governed by laws, customs, opinions, and impulse, with Europeans on the top and Africans at the bottom. In fact, different populations within all four varieties would have had all four forms of behavior. (8).
Consistently throughout history people have tried to prove that groups with inborn qualities can either vastly improve or degenerate different races over time. This rhetoric has been proven multiple times throughout the course of the last century throughout the United States and Nazi reigned Germany. Supposedly, this rhetoric has been disproven throughout the United States; however, there are proven accounts that the United States government has recently supported this theory of sterilization of minorities by supporting the eugenics movement was not only in Nazi Germany, but also on United States soil. The topic of improving the genetic make up of different races has not only just become a common theme for many modern day countries to use to make their societies more genetically fit. However, it has adopted the basis for current racism that is clearly apparent in today’s society. If improving genetic fitness was not a concern to past societies, then people, in general would be a lot more open to interracial and cross-cultural relationships rather than completely disregarding the idea of dating someone that is visibly genetically different.
On January 4th, 1937, the legendary Grace Bumbry was born in St. Louis, Missouri to a freight-handler and a Mississippi school-teacher. While a very religious but only middle-class couple, Benjamin and Melzia Bumbry made sure to tell their three children to seek their riches through music. Singing was always a part of everything that the Bumbry family did whether it was washing clothes, helping with dinner or gathering around the piano and singing just for fun. Thursday nights was especially important because the Bumbry family would attend church for choir rehearsal. Grace's brothers, Benjamin and Charles, were part of the youth chorus at their church and since Grace was too young to be home alone, she tagged along as well. Her brothers eventually
Marks, John. "RacismEugenics, and the Burdens of History." personal.uncc,edu. Ix International Congress of Human Genetics, 20 Aug 1996. Web. 31 Jan 2014.
9. "AAPA Statement on Biological Aspects of Race." American Journal of Physical Anthropology 101 (1996): 569-570.