Show description

In any event, no apron of skin hung from the navel. It is, however, a fact that the labia minora in many Hottentot and San women were elongated to a length of half an inch to three inches. In some groups the labia were widened as well. 0pt PgV ——— Normal Pag PgEnds: TEX [31], (12) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 reported that many South African Bantu groups see elongated labia as a sign of beauty, and the labia are accordingly enlarged during female initiation rites (see Turner :).

It has taken a little longer for them to question the “naturalness” of gender differentiation as a principle of social order, however much it might vary across cultures in its specific manifestations. Early anthropologists did not do fieldwork but, rather, engaged in what we call “armchair anthropology,” assessing data collected by explorers, traders, missionaries, and administrators. Some of the missionaries, explorers, and armchair anthropologists, however, such as Sir Richard Burton and Lewis Henry Morgan, did experience firsthand contact with indigenous, supposedly “primitive” peoples.

However, with a possibly feigned gravity, Blumenbach remarks, “I have shown however on the weightiest testimony that this assertion is incorrect” (:). 3 There is no irony in any of Charles White’s statements about penis size: That the penis of an African is larger than that of an European, has, I believe, been shown in every anatomical school in London. Preparations of them are preserved in most anatomical museums; and I have one in mine. I have examined several living negroes, and found it invariably to be the case.