Wild Child

The wild children are children who, lost or given up, lived with their more young age, recluse of the company, well off any human contact. Some Enfant S Sauvage S were rejected by their parents due to serious physical handicap or mental. Other children lived serious traumatisms before being abandoned.

There exist many accounts of case of high children (or having been high) by wild animals. These accounts evoke Loup S, Ours or other animals hostile, having adopted a child like one as of theirs. The cases documented most abundantly and by qualified witnesses even of the scientists, are 5 or 6 among about fifty cases listed since the 14th century. There exist cases, much rarer, children raised by herbivores (antelopes in Africa). The difference in result between child raised by Omnivorous S or carnivorous S and child raised by Herbivore S makes it possible to pose very good questions, on the bond between food behavior and social behavior. In the case of children raised by herbivores, it is necessary to note the postural adaptation to the race.

The expression wild child appeared in the police report of Guiraud and Constant of Saint-Estève reporting the first and the second capture of the “savage of Aveyron”.

The Psychologie was interested in the case of these children to discuss the relationship between Culture and Nature (which cultural contributions requires small the human one to become human?) and to discuss the place of the early determinism in the Ontogenesis. But extremely fragmentary information on their former life (age of the abandonment, duration of this one, capacities acquired at the time of the abandonment…) make that the wild children do not constitute truly cases allowing to discuss these questions scientifically.

The reports/ratios, abundantly discussed and which were used as sources with books or films, are in particular those concerning:

Victor, the wild child of Aveyron, described by Jean Itard (cf the film of François Truffaut) which tried to carry out a rehabilitation as for a deaf child, without great results;
Amala and Kamala, young girl-shves-wolf, described by the reverend Singh and Dr. Sarbadhicari which dealt with them in an intuitive way, without being able to learn how to them truly to speak.

They were often considered children Oligophrène S but of the outlines of modification of their behaviors, within the framework of the techniques of “Dressage” which were often employed, show a certain resumption of their evolution without autonomous steps of Apprentissage appearing. The wild children have insurmountable difficulties in learn how with to speak.

Legends and literature

The most known legend is perhaps that of Romulus and Rémus, twins given up with the birth and raised by Loup S, known to be the founders of Rome. Another famous example, in the Literature, is that of Mowgli, character of the Livre of the jungle of Rudyard Kipling. Another known example is that of Tarzan.

In the Mythology and the Literature, the wild children are not only equipped with the human Intelligence, but also with a certain amount of Instinct of survival in natural environment: to be integrated in the company, for them, is supposed relatively easy.

Real cases

Hans of Liege, boy Irish raised by sheep
the three boy-bears Lithuania NS (1657, 1669, 1694)
the girl of Oranienburg (1717)
Peter, the wild child of Hameln (1724)
the girl of Songi in Champagne (1731)
the girl-bear Hungarian (1767)
the wild man of Cronstadt (fine of the eighteenth century)
Victor of Aveyron (1797), depicts in 1969 in the Film of François Truffaut the wild Child
Kaspar Hauser (beginning of the 19th century), depicts in 1974 in film of Werner Herzog the Enigma Kaspar Hauser ( Jeder für sich und Gott gegen ale )
Amala and Kamala, the young girl-shves-wolf, discovered in 1920 in India
Genie, name given to a 13 year old young girl, discovered with Los Angeles (the United States) on November 4th 1970, maltreated, attached and locked up without any contact since more than 10 years by his/her mentally handicapped person father.
Oxana Malaya, Ukraine, (Years 1990) raised by dogs until the eight years age
Andrei, a seven year old boy raised by an watchdog in the area of the Altaï, discovered in July 2004.
One can also read the testimony of Misha Defonseca, in its book Survivre with the wolves , reporting its experiment of little girl crossing all Europe in the search of his/her parents, during the Second world war. This woman now old lost confidence in humanity and remains deeply attached to the animal.
Rochom P' ngieng found in a Forest of the Kampuchea the January 19th 2007.

Case studies

wild children , Lucien Malson, coll 10/18, 1964
wild Children: anthropological approaches by LUCIENNE STRIVAY (Professor at the university of Liege - Belgium), Gallimard Editions, Paris, 2006,445 pages.

Films on the subject

the wild Child - 1969 - of François Truffaut
the Enigma Kaspar To raise - 1974 - of Werner Herzog
Nell - 1994 - interpreted by Jodie Foster