Patriarchal Etymology of Atavism

[William Osborne]

Norman Lowrey mentioned that we might have reservations about the term
"atavism", since its Latin root comes from the word "Father".  This point
is well taken, but there is some additional information about the word's
possible etymology that you might find interesting.  
"Ab", the related root in the much older Egyptian language was feminine. 
"Ab" was the "Mother-Heart" principle which created order out of the
"cosmic chaos".  In hieroglyphics she was symbolized by a dancing figure.  
I'm not sure, but I believe Ab was also the Egyptian word for heart.  After
a person died, the goddess  Maat would put the deceased's heart in a
balance with a feather from one of her wings on the other side.  If the
heart were as light as a feather, the person could ascend to the upper
world.  This "Mother-Heart" principle bringing order out of cosmic chaos
fits very well with my expanded definition of how "atavism" helps us know
the unfathomable--i.e. a universal source of knowledge preceding cultural
conditioning.
Significantly, the Hebrews took the same word to mean father.  Abraham is
their Ur-Father.  My wife's name is Abbie, which comes from Abigail, which
means "Father of Joy".  Perhaps this illustrates how absurd the
masculinization of language is.  Norman suggested we invent our own word
for my expanded definition of atavism, which is certainly a useful
possibility.  But if we rejected all masculinized words, little would be
left.   A pragmatic approach is for women to reappropriate  language.  A
little research shows that many masculine words once belonged to women. [In
this regard see: Barbara Walker,  _The I Ching of the Goddess_  (Harper:
San Franciso, 1986)].
So many of the foundations of Greek and Hebrew culture were Egyptian, but
this is written out of history because we don't want to see  Africa or the
feminine as an important cradle of European civilization.  Language and
history are given such chauvinistic slants.  Sometimes this makes certain
aspects of culture seem like a lie.  
I think the refemininization of language will eventually give us a much
deeper understanding of human consciousness.
William