Lectionary Calendar
Friday, June 7th, 2024
the Week of Proper 4 / Ordinary 9
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Bible Encyclopedias
Atavism

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…
or
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Prev Entry
Ataulphus
Next Entry
Atbara
Resource Toolbox
Additional Links

(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."

Bibliography Information
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Atavism'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​bri/​a/atavism.html. 1910.
 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile