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)
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.
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.
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.
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).
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).
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 twomillion-year-old Homo habilis cranium known as Stw 53
is covered with deliberate cut marks.
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).
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.
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).
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>.