Imre Györgyi szerk.: A modell, Női akt a 19. századi magyar művészetben (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2004/2)

Tanulmányok / Studies - Sascha Renner: Hatalmi anatómia / Anatomy of Power

groups of all creation. Missing links - such as the one between the apes and humans - seriously weakened the theory. Anthropology therefore sought signs of bestiality in the anatomy of peoples it considered racially primitive. The "Hottentots" were among these, competing with the pygmies of central Africa and the aborigines of Australia for the rung just above that of the great apes. "A squashed cartilage for a nose, drooping breasts dangling down to the navel, the entire body marinated by the sun in a make-up of goat's fat and soot, curls of hair dripping with grease, feet and arms entwined in fresh entrails" - this was the image the 18th-century traveler conveyed of South Africa's indigenous inhabitants.

6 Their appearance, their presumed barbarian customs, the apparent absence of any religion whatsoever, and their nomadic way of life irritated Europeans, who were especially put off by the language with its numerous clicking sounds, which they compared to the clucking of turkeys. In the construction of the "Hottentot" myth, language was of central significance because, according to prevalent thinking, it marked the boundary between man and animal. As it appeared questionable that the Khoi possessed a true language, they were presumed to manifest a particularly low form of human existence, possibly even to be the missing link between apes and humans that the law of continuity implied. However, compelling anatomical evidence was lacking. In March 1815, there seemed to be an opportunity to procure such evidence. Zoologists and physiologists at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, one of the world's foremost research institutes, invited Sarah Bartmann to the Jardin du Roi for a three-day inspection. The findings can be read in a report written by Henri de Blainville (1777-1850) and published in 1816 for the Société philomatique de Paris. The main aims of the investigation were twofold. The first was to secure "a detailed comparison between this woman [Sarah Bartmann] and the lowest race of humankind, the Negro race, and the highest race of monkeys, the orang-outan," while the second aim sought "the most complete explanation possible for the anomaly of her reproductive organs".

7 The postulation reveals that the scholars regarded Sarah Bartmann as a member of an intermediary breed situated below the lowest members of the "human race" on the hierarchical "chain of living creatures" and thus as clearly distinguishable from Europeans as the orangutan. De Blainville conducted a meticulous analysis of Bartmann's external appearance - from her skull to her breasts, pelvis, skin, and extremities -, and noted that her bodily features showed more correspondences with those of an orang-utan than with those of a Black African. He discovered the closest resemblance to be the protruding upper jaw (prognathism), which he labeled "a kind of snout".

8 Its structure, he said, was excessively developed in relation to her brain cavity and was consequently a conspicuous indication of her animal nature. Similarly, he noted that Bartmann's small ears, set far back, nearly matched those of an orang-utan and clearly differed from those of the Caucasian race. Nor did the scientist refrain from making value judgments, designating Bartmann's turned-up lips as "misshapen" ("mal formées"). Finally, he turned to the subject that had helped make the "Hottentot Venus" so famous. "By touching," he said, he had been able to convince himself that her protruding buttocks were in fact lumps of fat, which jiggled as the woman walked about. Like his colleague De Blainville, Cuvier, too, also stressed the nearness to animals: "I have never seen a human head more resembling that of an ape".

9 In Sarah Bartmann's conduct, too, he discovered the marks of a beast: "Her movements had a brisk and capricious quality, reminding one of the movements of an ape. Moreover, she has a way of puckering her lips in just the manner we have observed with orang-utans".

10 In this manner, the two men constructed the "Hottentot" body against a backdrop of ethnocentric norms as the embodiment of racial inferiority, the grotesque and the aesthetically disagreeable. Their findings led to the inclusion of Sarah Bartmann, as the lone representative of humankind, in the monumental Histoire naturelle des mammifères (1824). The grandly illustrated work shows - directly preceding depictions of various kinds of ape two representations of the nude woman; these were made by the painter Léon de Wailly in the course of the inspection at the Jardin du Roi (Cat. IIIS). " Later, race theorists adopted Wailly's images and the connotations associated with them. (Ill, 2)

11 Despite the insights attained, the investigation at the Jardin du Roi was a disappointment for the scientists. They had failed to examine that "extraordinary appendage, which nature has [made] a special trademark of her race"." Namely, Sarah Bartmann had refused to reveal her intimate parts, and even gifts of money had been unable to coerce her into doing so. Just a year later, all this was to change. On December 29, 1815, the young woman died of an infectious disease aggravated by excessive intake of alcohol. Several days later she was dissected by Cuvier, who prefaced the results of his autopsy with the following statement: "In natural history there is nothing more famous than the Hottentot apron, no other attribute has ever been the object of so many debates".

14 He eventually disclosed the secret: the "disgusting deformity" ("difformité dégoûtante") was overly developed labia minora, an outcome of the hot African climate. Cuvier's report had consequences for the image of the African woman, whom Sarah Bartmann soon came to represent in the public mind. His account especially helped corroborate one of the myths of scientific authority, namely the association of the African woman with unbridled sexuality. In accordance with biological determinism - the ruling doctrine of the time -, Sarah Bartmann's excessively long labia were interpreted as an expression of insatiable lust, and hence as an expression of contemptible immorality. The renowned physiologist