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Excursus I. Did Ham Have Sex with a Dog?

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Black and Slave
This chapter is in the book Black and Slave
Excursus IDid Ham HaveSex with aDog?Inotedabovethatanumber of modern writers misread therabbinic sex-in-the-ark story to saythatHam had sex with the dog.These misunderstandingswerebased onareading of the story as found inGenesisrabbaand theBabylonianTalmud, in which the question of who had sex with whom is not ambiguous:Ham, the dog,and theravenhad sexwith theirrespectivepartners.¹ApopularEnglish translation ofGenesisrabba,which does not include theraveninthestory,translated the Hebrew as“Ham and the dogcopulated in theArk,”mean-ing thatHam and the dog each copulatedwith their ownpartners. This transla-tion, however,was misunderstood by some modern writers to saythat Ham andthe dog copulatedwith each other.²So properlyunderstood by al-Kalbī(d. 763):“Noah commanded that no male should approachafemale during the time in the ark. But the male dogmounted the female dog”;a nd by the 13th-centuryExtractiones deTalmut:“Theteachers saythat threecopulated with their females in theark: the dog, theraven, and Ham, and allwere punished.”See above, pp. 51 and52,for thesetexts.Forthose misunderstandingthe story,see Goldenberg,“TheCurse of Ham:ACase ofrabbinicRacism?,”pp. 49–50n54;idem,The Curse ofHam,p.294n75, and add: Allier,Une énigme trou-blante,p.18; Vander Linde,Over Noach met zijn zonen,p.29; Lynn Holden,Forms of Deformity(Sheffield, 1991), pp. 49,71; Colbert Nepaulsingh,“The ContinentalFallacyofRace,”Race andRacism inTheoryand Practice,ed. BerelLang(Lanham, Md.,2000), p.147; Jean Philippe Omo-tunde,La Traite négrièreeuropéenne: verite et mensonges(Paris,2004), p. 132; and, presumablybased on Omotunde, René-Louis Parfait Étilé,Afrique Antique: Mythes et Réalités(Paris,2005),p. 64.All theseauthors made the same mistake. David Whitford,Curse ofHam,p.25n22, addstwo moremodern examples–David Carr andValerie Flint.(The referencetoFlint should betoarticle xiv, p. 47,n.29inFlint’scollection of essays citedbyWhitford.) Another recentauthorwhogives the Ham-and-dog errorsome credenceisHaynes,Noah’sCurse,p.25. He thinkstherabbinictext in the BabylonianTalmud is ambiguous. The original Hebrew,however,isno moreambiguous than the correspondingrabbinictext that includes theravenand whichHaynes,apparently, does not think ambiguous.Aswith all the other writers makingthis mis-take,his statement is based onatranslation of therabbinic text. On Haynes’swork, see the re-view by Christopher Owen inJournal of Church and State44.4 (Autumn2002)836–837. Therab-binic storyismisread inadifferent wayintwo recent publications, where we findanon-existentquotefromthe Talmud that“theraven, the dogand the Black (thekushi)are black because oftheir sins.”Thus,Omotunde(p.132), repeated by René-Louis Parfait Étilé,Afrique Antique:Mythes et Réalités(Paris,2005), p. 64,perhapsinfluenced by the incorrectinterpretation ofPTTaʿan.1.6,64d inAugust Wünsche,Der jerusalemischeTalmud in seinen haggadischenBes-tandtheilen: zum erstenMale in’sDeutscheübertragen(Zürich, 1880), p. 138.DOI 10.1515/9783110522471-018
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Excursus IDid Ham HaveSex with aDog?Inotedabovethatanumber of modern writers misread therabbinic sex-in-the-ark story to saythatHam had sex with the dog.These misunderstandingswerebased onareading of the story as found inGenesisrabbaand theBabylonianTalmud, in which the question of who had sex with whom is not ambiguous:Ham, the dog,and theravenhad sexwith theirrespectivepartners.¹ApopularEnglish translation ofGenesisrabba,which does not include theraveninthestory,translated the Hebrew as“Ham and the dogcopulated in theArk,”mean-ing thatHam and the dog each copulatedwith their ownpartners. This transla-tion, however,was misunderstood by some modern writers to saythat Ham andthe dog copulatedwith each other.²So properlyunderstood by al-Kalbī(d. 763):“Noah commanded that no male should approachafemale during the time in the ark. But the male dogmounted the female dog”;a nd by the 13th-centuryExtractiones deTalmut:“Theteachers saythat threecopulated with their females in theark: the dog, theraven, and Ham, and allwere punished.”See above, pp. 51 and52,for thesetexts.Forthose misunderstandingthe story,see Goldenberg,“TheCurse of Ham:ACase ofrabbinicRacism?,”pp. 49–50n54;idem,The Curse ofHam,p.294n75, and add: Allier,Une énigme trou-blante,p.18; Vander Linde,Over Noach met zijn zonen,p.29; Lynn Holden,Forms of Deformity(Sheffield, 1991), pp. 49,71; Colbert Nepaulsingh,“The ContinentalFallacyofRace,”Race andRacism inTheoryand Practice,ed. BerelLang(Lanham, Md.,2000), p.147; Jean Philippe Omo-tunde,La Traite négrièreeuropéenne: verite et mensonges(Paris,2004), p. 132; and, presumablybased on Omotunde, René-Louis Parfait Étilé,Afrique Antique: Mythes et Réalités(Paris,2005),p. 64.All theseauthors made the same mistake. David Whitford,Curse ofHam,p.25n22, addstwo moremodern examples–David Carr andValerie Flint.(The referencetoFlint should betoarticle xiv, p. 47,n.29inFlint’scollection of essays citedbyWhitford.) Another recentauthorwhogives the Ham-and-dog errorsome credenceisHaynes,Noah’sCurse,p.25. He thinkstherabbinictext in the BabylonianTalmud is ambiguous. The original Hebrew,however,isno moreambiguous than the correspondingrabbinictext that includes theravenand whichHaynes,apparently, does not think ambiguous.Aswith all the other writers makingthis mis-take,his statement is based onatranslation of therabbinic text. On Haynes’swork, see the re-view by Christopher Owen inJournal of Church and State44.4 (Autumn2002)836–837. Therab-binic storyismisread inadifferent wayintwo recent publications, where we findanon-existentquotefromthe Talmud that“theraven, the dogand the Black (thekushi)are black because oftheir sins.”Thus,Omotunde(p.132), repeated by René-Louis Parfait Étilé,Afrique Antique:Mythes et Réalités(Paris,2005), p. 64,perhapsinfluenced by the incorrectinterpretation ofPTTaʿan.1.6,64d inAugust Wünsche,Der jerusalemischeTalmud in seinen haggadischenBes-tandtheilen: zum erstenMale in’sDeutscheübertragen(Zürich, 1880), p. 138.DOI 10.1515/9783110522471-018
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents VII
  3. Abbreviations IX
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Chapter One. Black and/or Slave: Confusion, Conflation, Chaos 14
  6. Chapter Two. Skin Color Etiologies 28
  7. Chapter Three. The Origin of Black Skin in Noah’s Ark 43
  8. Chapter Four. The Origin of Black Skin in Noah’s Tent 68
  9. Chapter Five. The Beginnings of the Curse of Ham 76
  10. Chapter Six. The Dual Curse of Slavery and Black Skin 87
  11. Chapter Seven. The Curse of Ham Migrates to the West 105
  12. Chapter Eight. The Dual Curse in Europe 121
  13. Chapter Nine. The Curse of Ham in America 146
  14. Chapter Ten. The Beginnings of Chaos 160
  15. Chapter Eleven. Which People Were Cursed with Black Skin? 168
  16. Chapter Twelve. The Meaning of Blackness and the Curse of Ham 188
  17. Chapter Thirteen. Conclusions 199
  18. Appendices
  19. Appendix I. The Curse of Ham in Europe, 18th–19th Centuries 207
  20. Appendix II. The Curse of Ham in America, 18th-20th Centuries 218
  21. Appendix III. The Curse of Cain: 17th–19th Centuries 238
  22. Excursus
  23. Excursus I. Did Ham Have Sex with a Dog? 253
  24. Excursus II. A Passage in Ṭabarī’s History 257
  25. Excursus III. Was Canaan Black? 260
  26. Excursus IV. ‘Kushite’ Meaning Egyptian or Arab in Jewish Sources 284
  27. Excursus V. A Curse of Ham in Origen? 286
  28. Bibliography 290
  29. Subject and Name Index 340
  30. Index of Modern Authors 349
  31. Index to Scripture 359
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110522471-018

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents VII
  3. Abbreviations IX
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Chapter One. Black and/or Slave: Confusion, Conflation, Chaos 14
  6. Chapter Two. Skin Color Etiologies 28
  7. Chapter Three. The Origin of Black Skin in Noah’s Ark 43
  8. Chapter Four. The Origin of Black Skin in Noah’s Tent 68
  9. Chapter Five. The Beginnings of the Curse of Ham 76
  10. Chapter Six. The Dual Curse of Slavery and Black Skin 87
  11. Chapter Seven. The Curse of Ham Migrates to the West 105
  12. Chapter Eight. The Dual Curse in Europe 121
  13. Chapter Nine. The Curse of Ham in America 146
  14. Chapter Ten. The Beginnings of Chaos 160
  15. Chapter Eleven. Which People Were Cursed with Black Skin? 168
  16. Chapter Twelve. The Meaning of Blackness and the Curse of Ham 188
  17. Chapter Thirteen. Conclusions 199
  18. Appendices
  19. Appendix I. The Curse of Ham in Europe, 18th–19th Centuries 207
  20. Appendix II. The Curse of Ham in America, 18th-20th Centuries 218
  21. Appendix III. The Curse of Cain: 17th–19th Centuries 238
  22. Excursus
  23. Excursus I. Did Ham Have Sex with a Dog? 253
  24. Excursus II. A Passage in Ṭabarī’s History 257
  25. Excursus III. Was Canaan Black? 260
  26. Excursus IV. ‘Kushite’ Meaning Egyptian or Arab in Jewish Sources 284
  27. Excursus V. A Curse of Ham in Origen? 286
  28. Bibliography 290
  29. Subject and Name Index 340
  30. Index of Modern Authors 349
  31. Index to Scripture 359
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