Adopted by Chimps
 

If a human baby was adopted by chimps in the wild ( pretend it's possible), would he know it later on? Assuming he never sees humans. Perhaps gorilla's would be a better example, but it's his awareness that I'm probing.

luckyme

Re: Adopted by Chimps
 

Apparently not. Stories of wolf children, and children adopted by monkeys, all show them becoming exactly like their adopted species. There is apparently no ordinary human consciousness, and it doesn't develop until months or years in human company.

I don't know for certain about the veracity of these stories but they seem reliable; they're quoted in medical journals and I saw a monkey-boy interview on 60 minutes some years back.

Re: Adopted by Chimps
 

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Apparently not. Stories of wolf children, and children adopted by monkeys, all show them becoming exactly like their adopted species. There is apparently no ordinary human consciousness, and it doesn't develop until months or years in human company.


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Every so often I see a story on the care taken to get wild animals raised by humans to be able to survive back in the bush. Typically these are mammals, so they're not born alone on a beach like turtles and seem to need some species-based learning after birth to become a real bear or raccoon.

Still, many animals adopted by humans seem to retain a large amount of innate traits, and in deference to Pinker et al I'm wondering how much of our being human would hold with ape siblings rather than our usual apish ancestors.

luckyme

Re: Adopted by Chimps
 

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Apparently not. Stories of wolf children, and children adopted by monkeys, all show them becoming exactly like their adopted species. There is apparently no ordinary human consciousness, and it doesn't develop until months or years in human company.

I don't know for certain about the veracity of these stories but they seem reliable; they're quoted in medical journals and I saw a monkey-boy interview on 60 minutes some years back.

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The book "The Tree of Knowledge: the Biological Roots of Human Understanding" addresses exactly this phenomenon, and their conclusion is largely a "no" answer to the OP's question. I highly recommend it; the authors Maturana and Varela are both PhD biologists, and they know their stuff. Some of their insights will really make you question what "being human" really means.

Re: Adopted by Chimps
 

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The book "The Tree of Knowledge: the Biological Roots of Human Understanding" addresses exactly this phenomenon, and their conclusion is largely a "no" answer to the OP's question. I highly recommend it; the authors Maturana and Varela are both PhD biologists, and they know their stuff. Some of their insights will really make you question what "being human" really means.

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Thanks, put in on my list.

In general, intelligent social mammals seem fairly malleable in their adjustment to their early environment and I'd expect a human child to fit quite well into most social structures. Keeping up the physical pace may be too tough though.

As far as 'being human', i tend to go with the 'acts like one' measure as one of the important ones but their is no definitive one.

luckyme

Re: Adopted by Chimps
 

Feral humans, raised their entire lives in the wild, will instantly grasp human emotions, but cannot be taught to speak.

See Victor - the wild child

Re: Adopted by Chimps
 

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Feral humans, raised their entire lives in the wild, will instantly grasp human emotions, but cannot be taught to speak.


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But see the Baboon Boy

Re: Adopted by Chimps
 

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But see the Baboon Boy


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One site says it was a hoax, couldn't find anything else.

Re: Adopted by Chimps
 

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One site says it was a hoax, couldn't find anything else.



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It’s an interesting subject anyway. I’m no expert and just found my “Victor” site because I endlessly surf the internet for interesting stuff while playing poker. My guess is that the sample size for feral human being studies is quite small. I actually found my Victor site while reading about the wretched Kaspar Hauser here:

Kaspar Hauser