Saartjie baartman biography books

Khoikhoi woman (c. –)

For the South African patrol vessel, see Sarah Baartman (ship).

Sarah Baartman (Afrikaans:[ˈsɑːraˈbɑːrtman]; c.

– 29 December ), also spelled Sara, sometimes in the diminutive form Saartje (Afrikaans pronunciation:[ˈsɑːrki]), or Saartjie, and Bartman, Bartmann, was a Khoekhoe woman who was exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus, a name that was later attributed to at least one other woman similarly exhibited.

In this scintillating and vividly written book the full arc of Baartman's extraordinary life is traced for the first time.

The women were exhibited for their steatopygic body type uncommon in Western Europe that was perceived as a curiosity at that time, and became subject of scientific interest as well as of erotic projection.

"Venus" is sometimes used to designate representations of the female body in arts and cultural anthropology, referring to the Roman goddess of love and fertility.

"Hottentot" was a Dutch-colonial era term for the indigenous Khoekhoe people of southw