Term Paper Assignment 1 (Anth. 161)
1) Your assigned reading for this semester includes an auxiliary book entitled The Evolution of Beauty by ornithologist Richard Prum. You should have already purchased the book and be well into it by now, or at least have skimmed it in its entirety. Prum’s publication will form the basis of two short writing assignments. You will provide answers to several questions listed below, and it is necessary that you incorporate and cite Prum’s work in composing those answers.
2) Please answer the following questions in your paper, and support your answers with appropriate evidence:
— First, what is sexual selection? Contrast Darwin’s and Wallace’s opposing ideas about how sexual selection operates. Just how different is sexual selection in humans when compared with other kinds of living primates? How can studies of sexual selection in birds and other animals help explain trends in human evolution? Give concrete examples.
— Second, reproduction is essentially about using either armament and/or ornament to get the mate you desire. Why has hominin evolution experienced a wholesale shift away from male-male competition, in favor of a more pronounced move toward female choice? Can you envision a set of circumstances under which such a shift may have transpired?
— Third, what effects has that shift had on the organization of human societies? According to Prum, what roles have nonadaptive aesthetics and hedonism played in pushing behaviors away from adaptive eugenics? What further changes do you foresee resulting from sexual selection within our species?
3) The paper will be at least six to seven pages long. It will consist of a cover page, four to five pages of text, and one page of cited references. You should consult and list at least five references, and one of them should be Prothero (you cannot use our main text, an encyclopedia, a dictionary, or Wikipedia as one of the five required sources). I request that you use primary sources, i.e., that you make an honest attempt to get original source materials rather than second-hand treatments. You may access second-hand sources (like the internet or newspapers) to help you better understand the subject matter, but it is preferable to cite scholarly, peer-reviewed sources in the paper. It is acceptable to use online journal references (or any other sources published verbatim online with the original page numbers).
Formatting Requirements for the Term Paper (Anth. 161):
1) Margins: 1.5″ on left; 1″ on top, right, and bottom
2) Main Body of Text: Double-spaced (make sure to first turn off default spacing between paragraphs)
3) Fonts: 10 or 12 size (12 is standard); please use Times font style (use same font style and size throughout)
4) Paper will consist of a Cover Page (1), Text Pages (4 minimum), and References Cited Page
(a minimum of five references—you cannot use your main text as one of those five)
5) Items on Cover Page: — PAPER TITLE (3 double spaces down from top margin; all capitals; centered)
— by (6 double spaces down from title; lower-case letters; centered)
— Your Name (1 double space down from by; centered)
— four lines of information in lower right-hand corner of cover page:
Anthropology 161
1100-1150 MWF
Instructor:
the above four lines are left-justified (i.e., aligned on their left side)
6) First Page of Text: Title is repeated exactly as it appears on cover page (centered, all caps, but at top margin of page one).
7) There is no page number on the first page of text. All subsequent pages of text are numbered either top
center, top right, bottom center, or bottom right. Page numbers never go along the left margin.
8) The first line of each paragraph in the paper is indented (no blocking of paragraphs).
9) The opening paragraph of the paper starts 2 double spaces below the paper title on the first page of text.
10) The paper should have one paragraph as an introduction (summary of the problem, what will be
covered, possible hint at the conclusions, etc.). The ensuing parts of the paper should be organized
coherently by using subheadings to separate major sections of the paper. There should be a logical
flow between major sections of the paper (evidenced both in thought and words). The paper should be
well thought out in its organization, rather than merely put together haphazardly (use the subheadings to
give it organization). The text should be ended with a short Conclusion or Summary section.
11) Subheadings are placed against the left margin. Use initial caps only in words of the subheading
(articles such as “a” or “the,” or prepositions such as “from” or “to” can be lower case; the only
exception is when they start the subheading, in which case they are capitalized). Place a new subheading 2 double spaces down from the end of a prior paragraph, and then start the next paragraph 1 double space down from the subheading. Subheadings can be bolded or underlined (not both), but whichever one you choose, be consistent in its use. If you make subheadings bold, you must make the title bold also.
12) All references mentioned in the text of the paper have to be properly cited on a References Cited page
that follows the main text. You can put the References Cited heading right at the top margin of the
page, then come down 2 double spaces to begin listing your sources.
13) All references listed in the back of the paper must be listed alphabetically by surname, and followed by
date of publication, and specific reference material. Entries should be single-spaced, with a double-space
between entries.
14) Examples of different kinds of references cited (hypothetical):
Linden, David J.
2009 The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and
God. Cambridge (MA): Belknap Press. [example of book title]
Anonymous
n.d. The concept of trait transmission in chimps. MS. [example of ref where there is no
author listed, no date of publication, and it is a manuscript—avoid such refs if possible]
Camonille, Priscilla
2001 Development of Genetic Theory During the 1970s. Journal of Modern Genetics 13(2):43-
- [a journal article]
2002 The Not So Selfish Meme. Memetics Today 6(3):2-5. [example of more than one ref by
same author]
Davou, Mara
2008 Great Ape Connections. In New Concepts in Genetic Science, R. G. Matson and D. D.
Gish, eds., pp. 54-65. Paris: Mouflon Publishers. [example of article in a book]
Robertson, Marie
2001 The Dog-on-the-Leash Principle. <http://www.memetheory.org> [internet ref. example]
Zeta, Humberto
1999a Imitative Behaviors. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. [example of refs by 1 author in same yr]
1999b Is the Bonobo Unique? San Francisco: Academic Publishing House.
15) References must be listed in the text in order to show where you got your information. Generally, it is
done by putting the source in parentheses (Example: Davou (2001) identifies the brain as the
chief area where memes reside.). If you give very specific information from a source, such as numerical figures or very specific knowledge from a reference, you must give the page numbers where it is found. If you are merely summarizing the main conclusion from an entire reference, then you need not give specific page numbers (Example: Davou 2001:32).
16) If you give a citation that is a direct quote, you must follow it with the author’s name, date of publication, and page numbers [Example: Robertson says that, “Traits are permanently tied to genes and can never operate independently of them” (2001:13-14)]. Use quotes sparingly (short ones / no more than 4 total).
17) If you use figures in your paper, they must be numbered and captioned. If they are adapted from another source, then you must state that source. Figures do not count as pages of text. You can also use endnotes if you so desire (but I would suggest leaving them out for a paper of this short length). And please do not use footnotes.
18) The final paper can be stapled in the upper left-hand corner. Please do not use paper clips to bind a paper, as they usually come apart. It is also unnecessary to bind the paper in a folder (simply stapled will do).
19) After submission, the paper will be graded according to the university scoring guide that we discussed on the first day of class. You will receive feedback on your writing. I will make red notations in the body of your paper, and I will also append a grading sheet to the back of your paper with suggestions on what you need to fix. Before submitting the revised paper, you will need to detach that grading sheet from your first paper, and re-staple it to the back of your revised paper. Do not re-submit the first paper; all I need is your second (revised) version with the grading sheet attached at the back.
