Feral Children

Guest · Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 8:04 am Post subject: Feral Children

I was reading some accounts of feral children and The Forbidden Experiment. TFE is basically raising a child in isolation to see how much humans learn from other humans as far as behavior and personality and communication. Since scientists were unable to do this, they would use feral children and study them. Most accounts of feral children (real or not) involved the child acting like an animal and being timid of people. One girl would grab chickens and eat them alive and raw. They also all rip clothes off and refuse to wear anything. (I'm getting to my point) After all this, scientists were still unsure whether what makes us human is knowledge or instinct. What do you think? I immediately thought of my dog, Sierra. She acts soo humanlike it's almost scary. Compared to wolves, which are basically wild dogs, pet dogs are very different. More civilized and human-like, you could say. Sierra also seems more humanlike than dogs I know that were raised with other dogs. So what do you think, knowledge or instinct?

Sshhhbabysle... · Senior member **Joined:** 24 Feb 2005 **Posts:** 1039

When I read this, I thought you meant people were keeping kids in isolation for the sake of study. Then I read a lot of the cases, and those stories of those kids are so sad. I think children will learn what they're taught. If they don't see people walking upright, then they probably won't know that they can and are supposed to do that. If they haven't heard a spoken language then they won't know how to form words. If they have learned that they need to eat to survive, and haven't seen people cooking food, I'm sure that it would be normal to kill and eat like an animal. I think all the things that make us "civilized" are learned behaviors...not instinctual at all.

xaimeex · Senior member **Joined:** 08 May 2006 **Posts:** 2627

I read about a little girl who was raised by wolves and roamed the city where she lived with them. She would walk on all fours and kill her prey and eat it in the way that the wolves did she even spoke to them in howls and barks it was so weird. But i guess if she has been brought up like that then it is normal to her she doesnt know any different so its not like shes not human or anything its just that she was raised a different way to everyone else so has learned a whole different way of surivival.

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Swan · Senior member **Joined:** 22 Mar 2006 **Posts:** 925

hmmm... excellent question.

I think that the 'feral children' are a perfect illustration that human-ness is not instinctual. I think humans (and all intelligent creatures) have the instinct to learn from their surroundings- be it wild or civilised.

I would argue that what makes humans unique from every other species on earth is that we are aware of our thought processes, and we can acknowledge that others may have thoughts/viewpoints different to our own.

I believe that humans are the only species able to anticipate another's actions based on considering their thought process. Humans are the only species that express guilt, embarassment, pride and shame- these emotions center on how my own/someone else's perception of me makes me feel.

Self-awareness and awareness of another's viewpoints are acquired through knowledge. Infants slowly learn these skills, and once they do, I think they become a functioning human. Knowledge is defintely what makes humans human. Smile

Nightingale · Senior member **Joined:** 11 May 2005 **Posts:** 2614

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Nightingale · Senior member **Joined:** 11 May 2005 **Posts:** 2614

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veggiedoll · Senior member **Joined:** 25 Sep 2005 **Posts:** 3584