The MLA Research Paper

1. The MLA Research Paper

2. Sample Parenthetical Notations Book (one author) – (Thompson 333) Book (two authors) – (Miller and Levine 245) Citing two sources – (Thompson 123; Marshall 48) Citing a source with no author – (Cannibalism) Multiple sources by one author – (Bates 2: 333) Citing sources with same title – (“Cannibalism,” Britannica) Citing multiple pages – (Miller 233-253)

3. John Q. Student Mr. Marshall AP World History 8 December 2003 Cannibalism The science of cannibalism has just become respectable, as irrefutable bio-molecular evidence that we have eaten each other for millennia spurs renewed efforts by archaeologists, geneticists and anthropologists to find out when we started to do it, and why.

4. John Q. Student Mr. Marshall AP World History 8 December 2003 Cannibalism The science of cannibalism has just become respectable, as irrefutable bio-molecular evidence that we have eaten each other for millennia spurs renewed efforts by archaeologists, geneticists and anthropologists to find out when we started to do it, and why.

5. With the Lendu and Hema militias currently cooking human hearts and livers under the eyes of UN observers in north-east Congo, and the abduction of children or food in North Korea, it is hard to believe that until recently academia was dominated by politically correct assertions that cannibalism did not exist. While no one denied that psychopaths and the very hungry do it sometimes, eye-witness accounts of routine cannibalism were ignored.

6. With the Lendu and Hema militias currently cooking human hearts and livers under the eyes of UN observers in north-east Congo, and the abduction of children for food in North Korea, it is hard to believe that until recently academia was dominated by politically correct assertions that cannibalism did not exist. While no one denied that psychopaths and the very hungry do it sometimes, eye-witness accounts of routine cannibalism were ignored (Thompson 26).

7. In his 1979 book, The Man-Eating Myth, the social anthropologist William Arens told a generation of scholars what they wanted to hear: stories of cannibal tribes were the racist slanders of white imperialist scientists. Survival cannibalism made headlines after the 1973 Andes air crash. Sixteen Catholics had stayed alive by eating those who either died on impact or subsequently. The Vatican advised that, although those who had chosen to starve were not guilty of the sin of suicide, those who practised cannibalism had not sinned either: the souls of the deceased were with God, the corpses profane husks (Cross and Miller 167).

8. The ease with which humans switch into survival mode should have alerted the anthropologists who espoused Arens that their cherished theory was fictional. Archaeologically, cannibal behavior was evident all along, from prehistoric Fiji to the Aztecs to the Neanderthals of Europe. As Dr. Marshall states, “Cannibalism was not an isolated event, but a way of life in many societies.” There is now an overwhelming case that cannibalism is a worldwide phenomenon, stretching back to our evolutionary origins: wild chimpanzees and 70 other mammal species have been observed killing and eating each other, while the two-million-year-old Homo habilis cranium known as Stw 53 is covered with deliberate cut marks.

9. The ease with which humans switch into survival mode should have alerted the anthropologists who espoused Arens that their cherished theory was fictional. Archaeologically, cannibal behavior was evident all along, from prehistoric Fiji to the Aztecs to the Neanderthals of Europe. As Dr. Marshall states, “Cannibalism was not an isolated event, but a way of life in many societies” (Marshall 46). There is now an overwhelming case that cannibalism is a worldwide phenomenon, stretching back to our evolutionary origins: wild chimpanzees and 70 other mammal species have been observed killing and eating each other, while the two-million-year-old Homo habilis cranium known as Stw 53 is covered with deliberate cut marks (Cannibalism).

10. With this in our behavioral inheritance, the question of why we started to do it fades away. More interesting is the cannibalism we have chosen. The emerging picture is of two main types, one aggressive, as on Pueblo-Indian sites where children's skulls were used to cook their brains; the other reverential, as in the Siberian Iron Age, where select cuts of meat were removed from bodies before burial to make a funeral meal. Skeptics who have argued against these interpretations now have the findings of molecular biology to deal with. Desiccated human feces, preserved for a thousand years among smashed bone at the Pueblo-Indian site of Cowboy Wash , have been found to contain protein unique to human heart muscle. This is the remains of just one meal, eaten in one place, but there is new evidence that is global in extent. Researchers from University College London, having identified gene-based resistance to diseases of the mad-cow type among the Fore of Papua New Guinea - who only recently gave up eating their dead - went on to identify it in all the rest of us as well.

11. With this in our behavioral inheritance, the question of why we started to do it fades away. More interesting is the cannibalism we have chosen. The emerging picture is of two main types, one aggressive, as on Pueblo-Indian sites where children's skulls were used to cook their brains; the other reverential, as in the Siberian Iron Age, where select cuts of meat were removed from bodies before burial to make a funeral meal (Bates 38). Skeptics who have argued against these interpretations now have the findings of molecular biology to deal with. Desiccated human feces, preserved for a thousand years among smashed bone at the Pueblo-Indian site of Cowboy Wash , have been found to contain protein unique to human heart muscle (52). This is the remains of just one meal, eaten in one place, but there is new evidence that is global in extent. Researchers from University College London, having identified gene-based resistance to diseases of the mad-cow type among the Fore of Papua New Guinea - who only recently gave up eating their dead - went on to identify it in all the rest of us as well (Days of Woe).

12. Works Cited Bates, Norman. Cannibalism in America. New York: MacMillan, 1983. ________ . The Donners and Cannibalism. New York: Holt, 1972. “Cannibalism.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2000 ed. Cross, John and Terry Miller. Cannibals of the World. London: Prentice-Hall, 1955. Dahmer, Jeffrey. “Mmm Good!” Cannibal Daily. August 1999: 75-88. “Days of Woe.” Cannibals of America. Sep 2003. 20 Nov 2003 <http://www. cannibalsofamerica.com>. Fox, James. “Why I Love People.” Gourmet Online. 20 Nov 2003 <http:// www.gourmetonline.com>.