Editing Robert Broom (section)

== Research on the Khoisan ==
Broom had a noted interest in the [[Khoisan]] peoples, which included collecting their remains, including those of the recently deceased, as well as by digging up old graves.<ref name=":0">Štrkalj, G. (2000). “[https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA00411752_49 Inventing Races: Robert Broom’s Research on the Khoisan]“. ''Annals of the Transvaal Museum'' 37: 113-24.</ref> Broom first began collecting modern human remains in 1897, shortly after he moved to South Africa. In that year he collected the remains of three elderly "[[Hottentot (racial term)|Hottentot]]" people that had died around [[Port Nolloth]] following a drought in the region. Broom stated that he "cut their heads off and boiled them in paraffin tins on the kitchen stove". Their skulls were later sent to the medical school of the [[University of Edinburgh]],<ref name=":1">Morris, A.G. (1987). “[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3887769 The Reflection of the Collector: San and Khoi Skeletons in Museum Collections]“. ''The South African Archaeological Bulletin'' 42(145): 12-22.</ref> alongside a 7 month old foetus, from which Broom had removed the brain which he preserved separately.<ref name=":0" /> Broom also obtained remains of deceased prisoners, stating: "If a prisoner dies and you want his skeleton, probably two or three regulations stand in the way, but the enthusiast does not worry about such regulations." Broom said that he had buried several corpses in his garden allowing them to decay before later retrieving their bones. These include the remains of two men who were imprisoned in Douglas jail: Andreas Links, an 18 year old [[!Ora people|!Ora]] man, (catalogued as MMK 264), as well an unnamed 18 year old "bushman" from Langeberg (catalogued as MMK 283), who was photographed while alive at the request of Broom, despite this being against policy. The skeletons of both men were added to the collections of the [[McGregor Museum]] in 1921.<ref name=":1" />

Broom described the Khoisan peoples as a "[[Social degeneration|degenerate]]" and "degraded race", speculating in 1907 that they descended from "the race which built the Pyramids" and "[[Mongoloid]]s", but had "degenerated" due to South Africa's hot climate. In his later works he divided the Khoisan peoples into three [[Race (human categorization)|races]], the Bushmen, Hottentot and Korana, based on supposed [[Typology (anthropology)|typological]] differences,<ref name=":0" /> with the [[type specimen]] of the Korana race being the skeleton of Links.<ref name=":1" /> Other contemporary anthropologists questioned this classification scheme, especially the Korana race. Broom later said that he had "invented the Korana". All such typological racial classification schemes are discredited today, due to being based on vague criteria, resulting in the rigid categorization ultimately being arbitrary. Anatomist Goran Štrkalj wrote that: "It is obvious that Broom's anthropological work was ... influenced by the racist stereotypes and prejudices of the day".<ref name=":0" />