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atavism |
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atavism (ăt`əvizəm), the appearance in an individual of a characteristic not apparent in the preceding generation. At one time it was believed that such a phenomenon was thought to be a reversion of "throwback" to a hypothetical ancestral prototype. The term is seldom used today since science has shown that such abnormal characteristics can be explained by the inheritance of a pair of recessive genes gene, the structural unit of inheritance in living organisms. A gene is, in essence, a segment of DNA that has a particular purpose, i.e., that codes for (contains the chemical information necessary for the creation of) a specific enzyme or other protein. ..... Click the link for more information. . See Mendel Mendel, Gregor Johann (grā`gôr yō`hän mĕn`dəl) ..... Click the link for more information. . atavism the recurrence in a plant or animal of certain primitive characteristics that were present in an ancestor but have not occurred in intermediate generations How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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Soldiers are atavists, grounded in reality, connected by blood to the soil of a place, and the farther one travels from the military life the more unreal America gets. They do this for security reasons: one does not need a hyperactive genius like Napoleon, an imaginative but adolescent atavist like Kaiser Wilhelm II, or a monster like Adolf Hitler to get hegemonic wars. While Spenser and Davies largely suppress these reflexive ironies unsettling the Roman critique of barbarism (a matter to which we shall return), in virtually every other respect they depict (no pun intended) the Irish as atavists of the northern European barbarians found in Caesar and Tacitus. |
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