h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, you ask for responces, so I'll give you one. I don't know nearly as much on the subject as you seem to.
There is much more information on neglected children, much like Kasper, than there is on feral children.
Contact with other humans is neccisary for the growth of children, and many things that seem inherant in animals turn out to be at least partly learned, such as pain and sex.
On the other hand, things like speech, walking, and interpersonal interactions seem to be inherent in human development.
If you had a group of children left on their own (except for a pack of maternal wolves, of corse) they would probaly learn to get along together and they would be able to talk to each other to some extent.
They may or may not mate when they become old enough. I think this is something they would learn from the wolves.
Pain I think they may develope even without the wolves.

Hi Tem,

Thanks for your questions. Very thought provoking!

I think the basis for this article is an attempt to understand what makes us humans different; that if you take away all the effects of socialisation to the point that even language is beyond our reach, what type of person are you left with? How close are we in nature then to similar animals?

There was possibly a time not so long ago (in relative terms) that humans could not read or write, could not perform calculations, could not organise others, and possibly could not talk, in the way that we recognise talking today. I think these are innovations and acquired tools which we as a species have learned. Take all these innovations away, and what are we left with?

The stories of feral children go some way to answering that question but they will never tell us the whole story. In many ways they are not good examples because they occurred as a result of gross neglect, so a deep psychological scar possibly exists which will make the person behave very differently than they might if they were part of an "unsocialised" human community.

CR