Preview

Sarah Baartman essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1180 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sarah Baartman essay
Jocelyn Iyman
History
Discursive Essay:
To what extent did Sarah Baartman’s life illustrate the differences between the Khoisan and Europeans?
Grade 10
16 august 2013
(draft)

Sarah Baartman’s life showed the extent differences between the Khoisan people and the Europeans, in the factors of land ownership, religion, and their respect for others, their social, the role of women as well as the way they entertained in society.

Between the Khoikhoi, San and Europeans there was a vast difference in their beliefs of land ownership and property rights. The San, who were a hunting and foraging people, did not believe in ownership, as lived off the land. The Khoikhoi who were nomadic herders did believe in possession and had herds of cattle and sheep, but because they were nomadic, this meant they had land of their own (although others Khoikhoi clans could get permission from the local chiefs to use their resources). The Europeans (Dutch) did however believe in private land ownership.
Where the Dutch believed in private land ownership and Khoisan did not, this led to conflicts between the two groups, because the land that was granted to the free burghers (historical German title acquired by family descendants of the ruling class in German speaking towns) and Huguenots was land used by the khoikhoi for cattle grazing and furthermore this put a limitation to water access, and the wild animals that were hunted by the khoisan were rapidly becoming scarce.
The difference between the Dutch and Khoisan were shown in Sarah Baartman’s life was by the fact that she was sold as a slave to a Dutch framer, where no more was she free but rather property owned. This showed the vast difference between the two groups.

The Khoisan believed in a supreme being who controlled over their daily life and elements of the environment. This god was worshipped through rituals and small sacrifices. In counterpart to this god there was an evil deity they believed in, that brought about illness

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary By Rula Quawas

    • 114 Words
    • 1 Page

    In this article, Rula Quawas examines how the North and South despite their differences agree on one issue; a woman’s place. Quawes sees this issue as a cult like belief. She compounded ideas of what a man would think true womanhood consisted of in the 19th century. A few ideas was that a woman should have an understanding that the home is where she belongs and the economic world is for the man, the home is the only proper sphere for the female, and have knowledge about the functions as a mother and a wife. It is then seen if a woman does not partake in that belief system, she can simply be treated.…

    • 114 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dowling, J. (1975). Property Relations and Productive Strategies in Pastoral Societies. American Ethnologist, Volume2(Issue 3), pp.419-426. Retrieved from: http://www.anthrosource.net.proxy-library.ashford.edu/Abstract.aspx?issn=0094-0496&volume=2&issue=3&SuppNo=0&article=278360&jstor=False&cyear=1975…

    • 2452 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Brewer, Holly. "Women in Colonial America." North Carolina State University, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. <http://www.dlt.ncssm.edu/lmtm/docs/women_col_am/script.pdf>.…

    • 1806 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    This article was written by Susan Myra Kingsbury. From what we can tell, Kingsbury put together a series of records from the Virginia Company. From this article, we can tell that she is a woman who studied the immigration of women to Virginia. The assumptions and biases of the author are that the Virginia Company played a big role in preserving stable families and migrating women to Virginia.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the most striking constrasts between 1973 and 1873 is the lack of education for women. Abigail Kirk quickly learns that Beatie wants to gain an education. In the year 1873 it was uncommon for girls, especially poor girls to gain any formal education. Beatie’s thirst for knowledge encourages her to seek tuition from her brother Judah. She doesn’t enjoy the routine classes for girls at the Ragged School and wishes she could learn subjects just like the boys. Beatie is fascinated by the fact that children in Abigail’s time know her name. She wants to find out how this has come about. Abigail tells her that she believes it is because she has become famous, or at least well known. “Abigail tells Beatie that if she wants to gain anything in her time she should “…look out for yourself…How will you ever get anything if you don’t march in and bullyrag people…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cronon Worksheet

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages

    For the most part Native Americans didn’t have a concept of land ownership. The tribes were very mobile and didn’t stay in one place. They moved from place to place along with the seasons so everything was made so that it could be mobile and could be moved when needed. They did not believe in owning the land however they believe that they should live off of the land.…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mama Lola

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Karen McCarthy Brown’s organizing schema is a trade­off between chapters about Alourdes’ ancestors and one’s in which Brown describes events and themes centered around one of Alourdes’ spirits. Brown’s chapters on Alourdes’ family tree are fictionalized short stories meant to “tap a reservoir of casual and imagistic knowledge” in the face of risking a “lifeless”, “forgotten”, and irrelevant. (19) In doing so, Brown invokes Gede’s knack for seeing life from new perspectives and imaginatively recuperates omitted and misrepresented histories of Others. In “Joseph Binbin Mauvant” she artfully describes Aloudes’ great­grandfather’s disappearance or return “back to Africa”. It is in these chapters where it seems Brown raised my eyebrows most. While reading each section my mind’s ear listened…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before the use of money whoever was the strongest or most skillful person in the village probably owned the largest amount of land since they could cultivate the most amount of crops or use the land the most to their advantage but when money was introduced into the equation the Darwinian term of “survival of fittest” was no longer as relevant in the same way as it once was. Eventually because of money being used to facilitate trade some people could take advantage and with the same amount of goods or materials make more money and become richer so it is no longer the strongest or the most skillful person who owns the most amount of land but instead the…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jamestown Project

    • 1381 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In this book, Kupperman is telling a well-known event in remarkable detail. She intentionally uses last three chapters of the nine to tell the Jamestown’s history. The first six are in relation to how Jamestown came to be. The first chapter deals with political, national and religious conflicts during this period and how it motivated the English to venture West. The second is titled,” Adventurers, Opportunities, and Improvisation.” The highlight of this chapter is the story of John Smith, and how his precious experience enabled him to save ”the Jamestown colony from certain ruin.” (51) He is just an example of the “many whose first experiences along these lines were Africa or the eastern Mediterranean later turned their acquired skills to American ventures.” (43) Chapter three discusses the European and Native American interaction before and during this period. “North America’s people had had extensive and intimate experience of Europeans long before colonies was thought of, and through this experience they had come to understand much about the different kind of people across the sea.” (73) This exchange of information happened because a lot of Europeans lived among…

    • 1381 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Guests of the Sheik

    • 1542 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Fernea entered El Nahra naïve to the culture. However, was an innocent bystander, she became indignant because of the reference of wearing the abayah, “ because she viewed the “abayah” as not being a part of her culture and did not have to wear it, “Why should I have to wear that ugly thing–it’s not my custom” (1965: 5). However, through her stay in the small Iraqi village, she gained cultural insight to be passed on about not only El Nahra, but to all foreign culture. As Elizabeth entered the Sheik’s village, she was viewed with a critical eye, “It seemed to me that many times the women were talking about me, and not in a particularly friendly manner” (1965: 70). The women of El Nahra could not understand why Elizabeth was not with her entire family, and why it was just her and her husband Bob: “Where is your mother? Kulthma asked. I told her she was in America far away, and when Selma repeated this in a better accent, the women clucked in sympathy. Poor girl, they said. Poor child. To be alone without any of one’s womenfolk was clearly the greatest disaster which could befall any girl” (1965:36). The women did not recognize her American lifestyle as accurate. This is not only ethnocentrism on the part of the El Nahran women because of their belief system that you are suppose to have your parents living with you or near you but American’s do not see this as a bad thing to live far from ones parents. Conversely, Elizabeth–BJ or Beeja, as…

    • 1542 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Mary Cassatt Essay

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages

    On 1844 Mary Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania to a well-to-do family. She shared the house her father built on Rebecca Street with her younger brother Gardner and her older siblings Lydia, Alexander and Robbie. Robert Cassatt, Mary’s father, was a successful banker and also Mayor of Allegheny City for a time. Mary’s mother, Katherine Cassatt was well educated for a woman in the nineteenth century, forever having to abandon nests she had only just made. Mary Cassatt and her family moved several times within Pennsylvania, from Allegheny City to Pittsburgh, then to Lancaster, and then to Philadelphia. Robert Cassatt then decided to move his family to Paris, France when Mary was seven years old. He believed this to be a wise decision, the apotheosis of the Cassatt’s; but especially of Mary.…

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Europeans and the Indians had very contrasting ideas of personal wealth and ownership. The Europeans believed that only the rich should own land, and strongly followed the practice that when you passed away, the land stays in the family to keep the family honor and pride alive. In European society, what one owned decided one's identity, political standpoint, wealth, and even independence. The Indians believed that property was part of a tribe, not a personal possession to own. One of their beliefs was that the land was sacred, and each family should have a piece of the whole. As a general rule, the Indians followed their belief that states that everything on the earth is given to all, and each person deserves their own share. In 1657, a French Jesuit said that, "Their kindness, humanity and courtesy not only makes them liberal with what they have, but causes them to possess hardly anything except in common."…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aboriginal Dispossession

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Separation from the land meant that cultural practices and ceremonies associated with the land could not be carried out. They were…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Kamensky, Jane. The Colonial Mosaic: American Women 1600-1760. 1st ed. 2. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. 7-149. Print.…

    • 3186 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women 1500 Ce

    • 2649 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Women's lives, roles, and statuses changed over various early world history eras and culture areas in many ways. Ancient Persia, Paleolithic, Athens, Mesopotamian and Roman eras were all different in very unique ways. The Paleolithic era treated women fairly and were treated equally. During the Neolithic era women were not treated fairly. She was the daughter of her father or the wife of her husband. Women rarely acted as individuals outside the context of their families. Those who did so were usually royalty or the wives of men who had power and status.” (oi.uchicago.edu, 2010) Athenian women were not treated fairly either almost as if they were not even a citizen. “Laws forbade women and children from participation in political, judicial, and military affairs.”(Mahdavi, 2012) During the Ancient Persian Empire women brought more to their marriage than the men did. They could also divorce their husbands without reason and explanation. The Ancient Persian Empire is when women’s roles really began to change. Women that lived within the Roman Empire were expected to have a guardian because the Romans believe the women were not responsible enough to do things without. Although, women were still considered property, they had more options and rights as a woman.…

    • 2649 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays