The recurrence, or a tendency to a recurrence, of the original type of a species in the progeny of its varieties; resemblance to remote rather than to near ancestors; reversion to the original form.
The recurrence of any peculiarity or disease of an ancestor in a subsequent generation, after an intermission for a generation or two.
recurrence of or reversion to a past style, outlook, approach, or manner.
is a term first used by Cesare Lombroso and other early supporters of the positivist school of criminology. It refers to a biological condition that allegedly renders the recipient incapable of living within the social norms of a society.
A reversion to an ancestral type. The Swiss "Nigra" is an instance of this kind.
A re-emergence of ancestral characteristics, a genetic aberration resulting in a reversion to characteristics from an earlier stage of evolution.
Atavism refers to Lombroso's theory that while most individuals evolve, some devolve, becoming primitive or "atavistic". These evolutionary "throwbacks" are "born criminals," the most violent criminals in society. Born criminals could be identified through their atavistic stigmata. (For a good account of Lombroso's theories of atavism, see Gould's The Mismeasure of Man ages 151-75.)
a reappearance of an earlier characteristic
the reappearance in an individual of characteristics of some distant ancestor that have not been present in intervening generations, such as a hand like a hairy paw.
Reversion to an earlier, ancestral type.
The reappearance of characteristics of more or Im remote ancestors. Also called reversion or throwing back.
A throwback; reoccurrence of features normally no longer evident in a lineage.
The reappearance of a trait possessed by a remote ancestor due to recessive genes or other masking characteristics.
Re-emergence of ancestral characteristics; a genetic throwback. Last updated:March 8, 2006
The theory that offenders are less likely to conform to the demands of contemporary social life because they are related to a more primitive evolutionary condition. See also sociobiology.
An atavism can mean an organism that is a real or supposed evolutionary throwback; the unexpected appearance of primitive traits; or a reversion to or reappearance of a trait that had been present in a lineage in the past, but which had been absent in intervening generations. Atavisms occur because genes for previously existing phenotypical features are often preserved in DNA, even though the genes are not expressed in some or most of the organisms possessing them.