Anne Applebaum

Even in Poland, where the president is far less powerful than the prime minister, people have a deeper and more atavistic relationship with the person who is a serious contender to become head of state. They want their national leader - the tribal chief - to look like them, to live like them, to reflect their values.

American Journalist

Shelby Steele

I am a black American, I say, and thus announce my atavistic connection to all others who live as black Americans, to all who ever lived as black Americans. Religion, caste, class, gender and race can all be atavisms, and they are inherently anti-democratic because they exclude all outside the atavism.

American Author

Neel Mukherjee

In any restaurant, my eyes alight first, as if by an atavistic pull, on the meat dishes on the menu. In any dinner party I throw, I think of the non-vegetarian dish as central. I view this as a combination of weakness, greed and moral failure. Someone please help.

Indian Writer

Stephen Moyer

I'm not a very violent dude, and if something can be settled without any physicality, I'm always in favor of that. But if somebody comes near my kids, the atavistic crazy lion comes out.

English Actor

Heather Mac Donald

Feminists declare that men and women are equal in all respects. They petulantly decry any atavistic male courtesy towards females as a relic of a still oppressive patriarchal culture.

American Editor

Michael Wolff

Guns in America have an atavistic force. Possessing them, or the act of not possessing them, is an identity that seems to pass from father to son.

John Keegan

I don't think that what's going on in Bosnia is political activity. It's partly political, but it's partly atavistic as well.

English Historian

Penelope Lively

Deep down I have this atavistic feeling that really I should be in the country.

English Author

Don DeLillo

In the face of technology, everything becomes a little atavistic.

American Novelist

Describes behaviors or reactions that seem outdated, coming from our distant past.

Evolutionary Throwback

Used when someone has a gut reaction that's mostly emotional, not based on modern logic.

Emotional Reaction

Involves instinctual urges or drives we are not consciously aware of.

Subconscious Drives

Refers to the reappearance of an old genetic trait, not seen in recent generations.

Genetic Traits Reappear

An irregularity where ancient features manifest in modern organisms unexpectedly.

Biological Anomaly

Used when ancient characteristics arise in an organism, defying typical evolutionary patterns.

Atavistic