Feral Children Raised by the Forest<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The term \u201cferal children\u201d refers to human children raised by animals, who spent their early years in isolation, with limited or no contact with other humans. Mowgli from The Jungle Book<\/em>, Tarzan raised by apes, and Romulus and Remus \u2013 the legendary founders of Rome nurtured by a wolf \u2013 are all examples of feral children. Culture abounds with such imaginings, and even more actual cases exist. One of the most famous stories concerns Victor of Aveyron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1800, a solitary boy was discovered in the dense forests surrounding the French town of Saint Sernin. At the time of his capture, Victor \u2013 as he was later named \u2013 was about twelve years old, naked, subsisting on plants he foraged, and communicating through inarticulate sounds. The boy had spent at least seven years of his childhood in isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Year after year, successive physicians and researchers attempted to reintegrate Victor into society. Their mission of \u201chumanization\u201d encompassed both linguistic and behavioral education. Ultimately, after years of instruction, Victor mastered a few words and simple phrases and gained more confidence around people, but his development stagnated. He remained childlike for the rest of his adult life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We recommend:<\/strong> The Daily Reality of Illness: The Human Psyche in the Face of a Severe Trial<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Beata Borowska-Beszta\u2019s findings, feral children exhibit \u201cprovoked psychosomatic differences that align with various forms of human psychosomatic divergence (disability).\u201d The Polish researcher notes that the process of \u201cgoing wild\u201d is not necessarily linked to nature and can occur in domestic settings. It stems from multiple coexisting adverse environmental conditions that impact a young person\u2019s development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Feral children often bear witness to systemic neglect, abuse, or abandonment by their closest relatives. They also grapple with mental illnesses, a condition now attributed to Victor of Aveyron as well.<\/strong> The intensification of the feral child phenomenon in modernity, particularly in the 19th century, is no coincidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This period solidified the belief in the separation of humans and their cultural and civilizational products from the natural world. Development in line with accepted norms was thought to be ensured by rational cognition and language, seen as the fundamental element distinguishing us from animals. From this perspective, every child \u2013 not just Victor \u2013 would need to be cleansed of the \u201ctaint of wildness\u201d to become a true, not merely young, human upon reaching maturity. Entering adulthood<\/a> would be synonymous with civilization, abandoning the world of fantasy and nature.<\/strong> Only then would young \u2013 and thus potential \u2013 humans become fully human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we treat feral children as a metaphor for childhood, it becomes apparent that the bond connecting the youngest with nature is not an aberration. Rather, it is the attunement to an anthropocentric norm that is secondary and impoverishes the experience of the \u201cself\u201d and the external world.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Psychological, cognitive, and cultural studies confirm this. For children, agency \u2013 the ability to act and influence one\u2019s surroundings \u2013 is not something attributed solely to humans; animals, plants, and even objects exhibit it, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the case of children, this is a subjectivity seeking contact […]; a non-dominant, sincere subjectivity, in which the hierarchical model from the adult world has not yet taken hold and which, in this childish period, spontaneously perceives subjective values in nature,\u201d writes Anna Barcz in her book Ecorealism.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The belief in the autonomy of non-humans, as well as thinking of oneself as someone who is among \u2013 rather than in opposition to \u2013 nature, is, according to Gene Myers, a psychologist from Western Washington University, natural for a child. The desire to interact with animals<\/a>, for instance, often trumps other potential pleasures for the youngest, as studies show.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In one experiment, Myers asked preschool children to choose one of several activities. The little ones could draw, and play with dolls, stuffed animals, or toy cars. They could also feed the preschool\u2019s guinea pig, although \u2013 it is worth noting \u2013 they had done this many times with their caregivers, so it was not novel. Nearly two-thirds of the children chose to interact with the animal, despite the many other available options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We recommend:<\/strong> The Enduring Ideal of \u201cGood Wives, Wise Mothers\u201d in China, Japan and Korea<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Victor of Aveyron\u2019s subsequent inability to function in a society largely stemmed from his communicative backwardness. According to American linguist Grover Hudson\u2019s definition, ferality manifests primarily in the linguistic sphere, which fails to develop normally and typically cannot achieve standard developmental levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, if we treat childhood wildness symbolically, language becomes the element uniquely binding the world of children with the natural world. Animals allow children authenticity and sincerity in communication.<\/strong> This works both ways \u2013 children accept animals as they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnimals do not demand sophisticated conformity to the structures of verbal communication, leaving children free to experience meanings and relatedness at nonverbal levels. Nor do they require accountability or draw children into the complex worlds of linguistically constituted objects, roles, morally laden evaluations, deceptions, and paradoxes,\u201d observes Gene Myers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our perception of the world is reflected in language, and by opening our thinking and communication to children and the natural environment<\/strong>, we can discern what we lost sight of during maturation \u2013 the \u201cwild\u201d element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIndeed, until children learn the conventions of language figures and lexicalized metaphors, they are like fish \u2013 not so much voiceless as lacking listeners, as the sounds they make do not fit into the anthroponormative category of speech,\u201d asserts literary scholar Anita Jarzyna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Polish proverb she refers to claims that children and fish have no voice, Yet, it seems that they speak, expressing their fears and desires. It falls to adults to hear them anew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Translation: Klaudia Tarasiewicz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Polish version: <\/strong>Dzikie dzieci: wychowane przez\u00a0zwierz\u0119ta albo\u00a0w\u00a0izolacji<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"feral](\"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/feral-children-2.jpg\")
Who Are the Feral Children?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Feral Children Among Us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Communication With Reality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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