Case Studies that could claim the nurture side of the debate
Feral Children
1.3 Feral children are children who have spent
much of their formative years in the wild, without any contact with other
humans for a significant period of their lives. Cases of feral children are
thankfully rare, but are of immense interest from a scientific and educational
point of view. Feral children provide data which help to answer a number of
questions:
- How close is human
nature to the nature of an animal?
- What aspects of
human nature are genetic, and what aspects are learned?
- What does
consciousness mean?
- Could we learn how
to speak to animals, or could we teach animals to speak to humans?
1.4 Studies of feral children in the past have
lead to breakthroughs in the education of people with learning disabilities,
and indirectly has lead to the development of sign-language and Braille.
1.5 Stories
of feral children pop up every now and again in the media, but most stories
are uncorroborated, and many are pure
fantasy. However, there are a few cases which did occur in history which were
the subject of intense scientific scrutiny.
1.6 Here are a
few of the celebrated cases in the history of feral children.
1.7 Wild Peter
In 1724, near the German town of Hamelin, a boy, described as a naked
brownish black-haired creature, was seen running up and down in the fields. The
boy was enticed into town, and once there immediately became a subject of great
interest. He behaved like a trapped wild animal, eating birds and vegetables
raw, and when threatened, he sat on his haunches or on all-fours looking for
opportunities to escape. Peter was soon made the possession of King George I of
England, where he lived the rest of his life. During his life Peter never
learned to talk, showed a complete indifference to money or sex, and was never
seen laughing. However he loved music, could be taught a number of menial tasks,
and when he once got lost, he found his own way back home. Peter died in 1785.
1.8 Victor, The Wild Child of
Aveyron
Victor, a boy of about 11 or 12, was discovered foraging for roots and
acorns in the woods near Aveyron, France in 1799. Victor was taken to Paris,
where he appeared to be human only in appearance. Victor behaved like an
animal, ate rotten food with pleasure, was incapable of distinguishing hot from
cold, and spent much of his time rocking back and forth like a caged animal.
Victor was taken into the care of the brilliant scientist, Dr Jean-Marc-Gaspard
Itard, who dedicated himself to the education of the boy. Victor proved to be a
very difficult subject. Over the years, Victor only learned two terms, 'lait',
and 'oh Dieu'1.
His sense of touch seemed to be far more important than his sense of sight, he
did not demonstrate an ability to distinguish right from wrong, and like Peter
before him, he was indifferent to sex. He did however, learn some menial tasks,
such as setting a table. Victor lived the rest of his life in the care of his
housekeeper, and died in 1828 at the age of 40.
1.9 Kaspar Hauser
Kaspar was discovered in 1828 in Nuremberg, Germany. He was unsteady on
his feet, and only spoke the phrase 'I want to be a horseman like my father
is'. Kaspar was about 16 years old, but he behaved like a small child. It
appears that for most of his early childhood, Kaspar was imprisoned in a cage,
with hardly any contact with the outside world. When a mirror was handed to him
he used to look behind him to find the person in the mirror, and could not
understand how faraway objects appeared smaller than objects close by. Kaspar
had a keen sense of smell. He detested meat and alcohol, and was offended by
the smell of flowers. He loved wooden horses, and he thought the sky was full
of candles. Unlike many other of the cases described here, Kaspar did learn
much, but in 1833 he was assassinated. The mystery of his early life and
violent death have never been satisfactorily answered.
2.0 The Indian Wolf-Girls
Kamala and Amala
Two young girls were discovered under the care of a she-wolf in 1920, in
Godamuri, India. The girls were taken to an orphanage in Midnapore (now part of
Orissa). When they were discovered,
their "rescuers" actually removed them from the embrace of a pair of
wolf cubs in order to take them back to The children, Kamala, aged eight
and Amala, aged 18 months, behaved exactly like small wild animals. They slept
during the day and woke by night. They remained on all-fours, enjoyed raw meat,
and were given to biting and attacking other children if provoked. They could
smell raw meat from a distance, and they had an acute sense of sight and
hearing. The youngest child, Amala, died one year later, but Kamala lived for
nine years in the orphanage until she died of illness at the age of 17. Kamala
did acquire a small vocabulary, but she remained very different to other
children until the time of her death.
2.1 John Ssabunnya
A young boy that was adopted and reared
by a local colony of African Green monkeys apes in the dense African jungles of
Uganda, until being found, scavenging for food in the company of his fellow
apes, by a tribeswoman in 1991.
The boy was then taken to the Kamuzinda
Christian Orphanage, 100 miles from the Ugandan capital Kampala, where he lived
with the family of the orphanage manager. For the next few years John learned
how to speak and to behave in a human manner, being able to tell his incredible
ordeal himself.
Hillary
Cook, a 56 year-old British dentist who was working in Uganda at the time, meet
John and passed the story along to the BBC, which verified its veracity by
going to Uganda and talking to all of the witnesses and parties involved on his
rescue, education and reintegration to society.
John's remarkable story was featured in
“Living Proof”, a television documentary screened on the BBC, October 13, 1999.
2.2 The wild boy of Hesse
A wild boy found in the woods of Hesse,
Germany, in 1341. He appeared to be about 7 years old and supposedly had been
kept by wolves.
This boy apparently died soon after
being captured, but a second wild boy was seized three years later (1344) in
the same region and reportedly lived to the age of 80 years.
According
to records, both children were wild and immune to cold and discomfort, besides
not being able to stand upright, consequently having to move around on all
fours
Questions
- Outline the case study
- What does the case
study show about human behaviour and how does Bandura’s theory/research
apply here?
- Is human behaviour
nature or nurture? Give reasons for your answer?
