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Monday, May 19th, 2025
the Fifth Week after Easter
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Bible Encyclopedias
Atavism
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
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(from Lat. atavus, a great-great-great-grandfather or ancestor), the term given in biology to the reproduction in a living person or animal of the characteristics of an ancestor more remote than its parents (see HEREDITY). Loosely used, it connotes a reversion to an earlier type. Individuals reproduce unexpectedly the traits of earlier ancestors, and ethnologists and criminologists frequently explain by "atavism" the occurrence of degenerate species of man; but the whole subject is complicated by other possible explanations of such phenomena, included in the scientific study of normal "variation."
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These files are public domain.
These files are public domain.
Bibliography Information
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Atavism'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/a/atavism.html. 1910.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Atavism'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/a/atavism.html. 1910.
