FERAL CHILDREN
"WOLF CHILDREN AND THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN NATURE""There exists today a being which, unlike everything else in the world, does not appear at birth as a 'prefabricated system', but which has still to be constructed and has everything to learn .......The natural in man is due to inborn heredity the cultural to his acquired heritage .... Even in the purely organic sphere it is difficult to draw the line between what is natural and what is cultural.The size and weight of a child for instance depend upon heredity factors as well as favourable living conditions which, in turn, depend upon the way of life and on the level of civilisation. If food, light and warmth - not to mention affection - are missing, then the proper pattern of growth will be seriously disturbed. In the domain of psychology it becomes frankly impossible to make any distinction between nature and culture. Nevertheless, it is clear that the conditions for the existence and development of biological life are physical and external whereas the forces which shape man's psychological life are social ones .......Once the notion of the hereditary, determination of mental characteristics, either by the individual or by the species, was exposed to rigorous and objecti
Human beings share much of their behaviour with other members of the society they are a part of. Having been kept in an attic for five years and only given milk to keep her just barely alive, one can only imagine the severe damage such conditions had affected the girl. Socialisation is different in humans than with animals, in that humans learn to be conscious agents. They are capable of reflecting on their own behaviour and modifying their behaviour through their experiences. ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**. Ivan Illich (Fulcher & Scott, 1999:237) describes this as the 'hidden curriculum'. It involves intimate relationships and constant interaction with the people in the immediate surroundings. This may lead to the possibility that they did respond to teaching and nurturing as a result of this contact, as opposed to Genie, whose progress was extremely slow and retrogressive. Children acquire attitudes, values and beliefs and so forth, predominantly through their parents or carers. These differences are the result of conditioning and that conditioning is culturally determined. Children thus come to realise that they are a person in their own right and the attributes required to be a person in their own culture. This fine example shows that social experience is of paramount importance in personality and social development. In summary, as we go back to Malson's narrative, we may say that biology determines our genes and physical make-up.
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Dollard Miller,
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Kingsley Davis,
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