It is reliably known that animals create families, can love and be offended, help each other and even people. But what representatives of the animal world cannot do is build social structures. Some species have the rudiments of socialization, for example, wolves and penguins, monkeys. However, there are no norms, values or specific rights or obligations. Moreover, animals cannot train and transfer their skills to other species.
In light of this, despite Kipling's beautiful tale of the boy Mowgli, animals are unable to instill human norms of behavior for the child. They can protect it, feed and heat it, but no more. Feral babies or people are called ferals. Thus, a feral man is one who has grown up in isolation from society.
Characteristic
Creatures raised in the animal community lack coherent speech. They have almost completely no human feelings. However, they are perfectly adapted for movement in the wild. Before eating, they must sniff it. They are afraid of fire and do not know how to laugh.
The stories of Mowgli children once again prove that once in the wild, a person ceases to be such. Inherited genes from parents do not help to acquire a human appearance. On the contrary, dormant animal instincts awake, allowing to survive.
The importance of personalization
A feral man is an individual who did not interact with his own kind, therefore could not acquire skills that would allow her to become a full member of society. Such people with the rest are united only by origin. If the “jungle child” is returned to human society, then such a child will hardly learn to speak, but he will not be able to fully think, laugh, interact with his own kind. Such people do not survive in human society for a long time. Why is it impossible to adapt feral to a society of people?
In fact, man stands at a higher stage of evolution and has a huge potential for learning, which animals do not have. And the ability to learn is an elementary basic element of socialization. People have learned to transfer knowledge not only from senior to younger, but also vice versa.
Is it possible to socialize?
Is a Mowgli child a person? In the understanding of sociology, no, and never will be. This is due to the fact that the feral process of socialization begins too late. The learning process begins at an early age, when the child learns about 70% of all information and a personality is formed. This age lasts up to 14 years. It is then that socially significant skills are laid.
With adult individuals, the situation is somewhat different. If we take the same Robinson Crusoe, who, by chance, was isolated from a society of his own kind, he did not lose his identity, but even was able to discover new facets in his mind.
Social and feral people are completely different categories. A child who fell into isolation at the age of 3-4 years will never be able to become a socialized person and, sadly to realize this, is doomed to be kept in a special institution.
If, before isolation, the child had contacts with people, then upon returning to human society he is more likely to socialize. He will learn to speak, although he cannot learn many words. He will learn some rules and norms accepted in society. But he can never become a full member.
Other health problems may occur. The stories of Mowgli children confirm that most of them, having returned to society, could not even learn to walk directly, could not get used to human food, since their gastrointestinal tract did not perceive such food. There are cases when such children even ran back to the animals, unable to withstand the imposition of incomprehensible norms of behavior. As a rule, such people live with people for no more than 10 years.
Social isolation and feral people: why is this happening?
Usually, children are isolated from society for reasons beyond their control. Perhaps the child got lost in the forest, or the parents decided to get rid of him. In any case, the baby did not make an informed choice in favor of the animal world.
Another example is when a child does not appear among animals, but remains among his own kind, but in fact is in isolation. It can be slavery or imprisonment when no one instills social behavior skills. What determines the appearance of feral group members in this case? The same as in the case of “Mowgli” - the lack of social ties with their own kind and the learning process.
Doctor Itard, who was engaged in the “Averon savage, ” put forward a bold theory that without training in a child, the brain partially atrophies. To some extent, there is even a lack of brain matter. Often such people are aggressive when they cannot act properly.
Real cases
The concept of “feral people” in sociology, history, and other sciences is not new; such individuals have been known since ancient times. Almost every nation has legends and myths related to the raising of human children by animals.
The oldest myth is about the brothers Remus and Romulus, who were raised by a she-wolf, nevertheless they became the founders of Rome. In the future, in many works, collective images are described: at Burroughs this is Tarzan, at Kipling - Mowgli. Already in 1730, the first documentary evidence of the existence of feral children began to appear.
Wild peter
Found a boy in 1724 in Germany, near the city of Hameln. His body was covered with thick hair, and he moved only on four limbs. He ate only fresh food, poultry and vegetables, could not speak. After numerous attempts, he was caught cheating and transported to England. There they tried to socialize him for a long time. According to some reports, he was taught to perform the simplest work, he lived to an advanced age, but he did not learn to speak.
Victor from Aveyron
The most striking and studied example of feral people. This story even formed the basis of the film "Wild Child". In 1797, the boy was seen in the forests of France. He was caught several times, but he constantly ran away. He finally managed to catch the “Mowgli” only in 1800, when he was already about 12 years old. He did not know how to speak. He was not afraid to be naked in the snow, and his body was covered with scars. They tried to teach the child human speech and sign language, but all was unsuccessful.
Victor lived to be 40 years old, never adapting to society, within the walls of the Institute of the Deaf.
Wolf Girl from Devil River
For the first time, a girl among a pack of wolves was noticed in 1845. She lived in Mexico (San Felipe). Throughout the year, information about the wild child shocked the public more than once; it was seen eating animal meat together with wolves. They managed to catch her, and they called the child Lobo. She constantly howled at night and eventually ran away. The next time she was seen after 8 years, she was with wolf cubs and at the sight of people took them and ran away. After that, no one else saw her.
Dean Sanichar
One of the oldest examples of Mowgli children is the Indian Wolf Boy. At the time of discovery by hunters, the child was about 6 years old. It happened in 1867 in the jungle of Bulandshahr.
Boy Dean lived with the wolves. When they saw him, he took refuge with the animals in a cave. The wolves were smoked and got a child. He was trained for a long time. Over time, he learned to eat from a plate, but periodically tore off his clothes. I have not learned a single word.
Kamala and Amala
These girls also lived with a pack of wolves in India, Midnapore. They were discovered in 1920. Amale at that time was 1.5 years old, and Kamale was 8 years old. Confirmation that they were sisters did not find.
Locals initially believed that human figures among wolves are spirits. Priest Joseph was called to expel them, but after a few days of observation, the monk realized that these were not obscure creatures, but the girls whom he had taken. The little ones slept together, curling up in a ball, did not speak, ate only raw meat and did not wear clothes.
On their bodies, obvious physical defects were observed, joints and tendons on the upper limbs were shorter, which did not allow them to move in an upright position. They did not show any interest in the people around them and constantly tried to escape to the forest. As a result, after some time, Amala dies, and Kamala suffers greatly and even begins to cry. In the future, the older girl even learned to walk directly and learned some words. But in 1929, she dies due to kidney failure.
Gin
A feral person is a socially isolated person, not necessarily raised by animals. The most striking example that all psychologists study is the story of Gene. After all, her own father isolated her from society. He closed it in the room, tied it to the pot and forbade relatives to communicate with her. When Gene made attempts to talk, her father brutally beat her. Discovered it in 1970, the girl's vocabulary consisted of 20 words.
Initially, it was assumed that the child had autism, but after examination it became clear that Jin was a victim of violence. For a long time, the child was treated and tried to teach the simplest skills. As a result, she was able to even answer monosyllabic questions and dress herself. Therapist David Riegler later took her to her family, where she lived for 4 years and learned sign language. Even later, the girl lived with her own mother, after which she ended up in a new foster family, with which she was again unlucky. She was so scared that she was just afraid to speak. According to recent reports, Jin lives in Southern California.
John Ssebunya
This boy escaped from his own home at the age of three. The reason for this act is terrifying - he witnessed the murder of his own mother by his father. This happened in Uganda, and the kid fled to the jungle, where he got to the monkeys.
In 1991, a woman Millie spotted John on tree branches among monkeys. As in other cases with the Mowgli, the child resisted and did not want to be caught. The defense even became monkeys who threw sticks and stones at people.
The kid still caught. His body was all wounded and covered in hair. A huge number of worms were found in the intestines. John was transferred to a foster family, and his parents even managed to teach him to speak (although it is believed that he knew how to do this before fleeing into the jungle), to sing. After which he traveled across the continent with the Pearl of Africa children's choir. John almost completely got rid of his animal habits.
Oksana Malaya
Feral people are not necessarily human beings raised by animals. In Ukraine in 1991, the parents of Oksana Malaya left a child in a kennel with dogs, with whom she lived for 5 years, from 3 to 8. During this period, she managed to run wild completely, learned to growl and move on all fours.
When the public and authorities came to the aid of Oksana, she defended herself, the dogs surrounded her and did not want to let her go, growled and barked.
After a long and intensive course of treatment, the girl began to speak again, but she still could not clearly express her thoughts and emotions. Most of all she likes to communicate with dogs and cows.
Bello from Nigeria
This boy was abandoned at 6 months of age and lived with chimpanzees until about 2 years old. Found him in 1996 in the forest of Falgor. By the way, the Fulani tribe lives nearby, in which this often happens. They tried to socialize the child, transferred to an orphanage, where for a long time he behaved like a chimpanzee, although by the age of 6 he had calmed down a bit. Despite constant communication with his own kind, he never learned to speak. In 2005, for an unknown reason, Bello died.
