Atavism And Genetics Essay, Research Paper

Atavism

According to WebsterOs dictionary atavism, from the Latin atavus meaning ancestor, is OA reoccurrence in an organism or in any of its parts a form typical of ancestry more remote then the parents usually due to genetic recombinations. A throwback.O This means that a person with an atavistic trait, or an atavistic deformity, exhibits a trait that was commonly found in our ancestors but that has been suppressed in the modern generation. Atavism reminds us that the genetic information used in the production of our ancestorOs characteristics has not been lost to us, but lies dormant in our genes, waiting to appear again. Atavisms give us strong evidence of how much genetic information in retained in our DNA even though the particular structure that the DNA codes for is lost to modern man.

One of the best examples of atavism is congenital generalized hypertrichosis, or CGH. This condition is described on page 114 of our text book, and is sometimes called the werewolf syndrome. This gene, believed to be in a small region of the X chromosome, causes thick, abundant hair to sprout on all parts of the face and torso causing affected people to look like werewolves. This syndrome is extremely rare and is only found in our times in one Mexican family, although Owolf-menO have been reported since the middle ages. The gene that causes CGH is a sex-linked dominant gene, one of the only known genes of its type. A version of the CGH gene is probably found in primates. Somewhere along the line of human development, the gene probably mutated, allowing humans to grow this type of dense hair only on their heads.

Darwin said that the large canine teeth possessed by some men are a case of atavism. These teeth were used by out ancestors as weapons. Some other forms of atavism in humans are tails and multiple nipples.

Like many scientific theories, atavism has been used by evil people to evil ends. A philosopher named Lombrosso, who lived in the 1800Os wrote a book entitled OThe Criminal ManO in which he blamed criminality on atavism. He thought that criminals were atavists, or throwbacks to an earlier sage of evolution because their actions resembled primitive people more than modern people. Criminals exhibit behavior that at one time was normal to the human race, but is now unacceptable. He also said that women were more likely to be atavistic because their behavior was more monotonous and uniform, conforming with female behavior throughout the ages.

An American geneticist, Charles Davenport, took this idea even further. Davenport was one of the the most influential geneticists in the early decades of this century and taught at Harvard. He was an advocate of eugenics and wrote the book OHeredity in relation to EugenicsO. This book stated that people should Ofall in love intelligentlyO by picking other people with desirable intellectual traits and that the government should not allow the mentally incompetent to reproduce. Davenport said that these mentally incompetent people were atavistic. In his book he wrote:

“The acts of taking and keeping loose articles, of tearing away

obstructions to get at something desired, of picking valuables out of

holes and pockets, of assaulting a neighbor who has something desirable

or who has caused pain or who is in the way, of deserting family and

other relatives, of promiscuous sexual relations — these are crimes for

a twentieth-century citizen but they are the normal acts of our remote,

ape-like ancestors and (excepting the last) they are so common with

infants that we laugh when they do such things. In a word the traits of

the feeble-minded and the criminalistic are normal traits for infants

and for an earlier stage in man’s evolution.”

Davenport thought that the obvious solution to this problem was to sterilize these atavistic people and to restrict immigration of the poor, because the poor were obviously of lower intellectual stature.

There are also several religious movements that call themselves atavistic. In this case, atavism is defined as a desire to return to the religious practices that were used in the very beginning of a particular religion.

Several artists have used atavism as the theory behind their work. The most famous of these is Salvador Dali, who painted OAtavism at TwilightO. In this picture, we see a woman with her head bowed standing before a skeletal figure. This represents the woman’s supplication to her bones, blood and ancestry. The woman is paying homage to her ancestors.

Atavism is a strange and rarely occurring genetic phenomenon. Although we hardly ever see it, it reminds us of the secrets and complexity of out DNA and serves as a link to our ancestors.