In the 1800s Europeans discovered Saartjie Baartman, a South African Bushman woman. They called her the Venus of the Hottentots and exploited her above all for her physical and cultural differences. Hottentots, Khoisan, San and Bushmen are all common names for the group of indigenous people to which he belonged. These people were largely viewed by Western society as “savages who were part human and part animal” and considered “the lowest rung on the ladder of human development.” This one-sided but widespread notoriety has existed since the 1800s, and many of the commonplace beliefs of the Bushmen have remained unchanged throughout modern history. This article will give a general overview of Bushman culture. It will describe some of its complexities, as well as further highlight how early Europeans and anthropologists perceived these South African peoples. This article will not provide an in-depth historical account or an all-encompassing survey of the culture, but it is a proposal that aims to present the culture of the Bushmen as something with much to appreciate. The Bushmen have a unique language characterized by the use of clicks in their speech. This feature is exclusive to the Bushman peoples and some other southern Bantu languages. These clicks can be described as “mouth” because the sounds are produced by variations in mouth movements that allow air to pass into the mouth. Producing such clicks requires the use of the lips, alveolar ridge (the ridge behind the teeth of the upper jaw), tongue, teeth, cheek, and palate. Because this language is unlike any other in the world, linguists have made many attempts to translate these sounds into written language, often using symbols to express them. The fact that t...... half of the article ...... avid Chidester et al., African Traditional Religion in South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997), 69.David Lewis- Williams & Sam Challis, Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Rock Art, 35.David Chidester et al., African Traditional Religion in South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography, 68.David Lewis-Williams & Sam Challis, Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Rock Art, 193.David Chidester et al., African Traditional Religion in South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography, 69.David Chidester et al., African Traditional Religion in South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography, 70.Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, The Old Way (New York: Sarah Crichton Books, 2006), 294. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, The Old Way, 294. David Lewis-Williams and Sam Challis, Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Rock Art, 36.