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Nature vs Nurture
October 9, 1920
The same Saturday, October 9, 1920, evening, long before dusk, at about
4:30 or 5:00 p.m., we stealthily boarded the machan and anxiously
waited there for an hour or so. All of a sudden, a grown-up wolf came out
from one of the holes, which was very smooth on account of their constant
egress and ingress. This animal was followed by another one of the same
size and kind. The second one was followed by a third, closely followed
by two cubs one after the other. The holes did not permit two together.
Close after the cubs came the ghost — a hideous-looking being — hand,
foot, and body like a human being; but the head was a big ball of
something covering the shoulders and the upper portion of the bust,
leaving only a sharp contour of the face visible, and it was human. Close
at its heels there came another awful creature exactly like the first, but
smaller in size. Their eyes were bright and piercing, unlike human eyes. I
at once came to the conclusion that these were human beings.
by The Reverend J. A. L. Singh Missionary, The Orphanage,
Midnapore, India.
“Kamala”, 1920
"Part of being a human is being brought up by
humans. If you're not brought up by humans,
are you completely human?"
(Professor James Law, London's City University)
What do you think?
Humans have probably have been around in their present form for
120,000 years. However, we only discovered language and
became technologically creative as late as 40,000 years ago. So
what were humans like before that? And what would we be like if
the influence of our current society was not present?
Feral Children
Feral children are children who have spent much of their formative years in the
wild, without any contact with other humans for a significant period of their lives.
Cases of feral children are thankfully rare, but are of immense interest from a
scientific and educational point of view. Feral children provide data which help to
answer a number of questions:
How close is human nature to the nature of an animal?
What aspects of human nature are genetic, and what aspects are
learned?
What does consciousness mean?
Could we learn how to speak to animals, or could we teach
animals to speak to humans?
Studies of feral children in the past have lead to breakthroughs in the education
of people with learning disabilities, and indirectly has lead to the development of
sign-language and Braille.
Stories of feral children pop up every now and again
in the media, but most stories are uncorroborated,
and many are pure fantasy. However, there are a
few cases which did occur in history which were the
subject of intense scientific scrutiny.
Kamala & Amala
Kaspar Hauser
Victor of Aveyron
It has always been thought that
nurture played a significant part in
the development of human beings
— but exactly what part? Just to
what extent can we attribute the
development of human abilities
and achievements to what we're
born with or to the environment in
which we're brought up? And what
can the evidence from feral
children tell us?
“The Noble Savage”
During the European Enlightenment, JeanJacques Rousseau propounded the view that
man is born pure (or, more accurately, does
not do ill because of "the peacefulness of their
passions, and their ignorance of vice") but is
then corrupted by society — by nurture.
Nature versus nurture
Feral children ought to be an excellent source
of evidence in the continuing nature-nurture
debate. Feral children cannot walk, talk, or
socialise: they cannot show empathy with
others...
On the surface, therefore, feral children
suggest that our upbringing is entirely
responsible for giving us language, the ability
to think and other traits. What happens in
early childhood thus has a profound impact on
the neurological development of the
brain.
The role of nature
Nature has a vital role to play too. Firstly, the brain is
highly specialised — being specifically designed for many of
the tasks it is called on to perform — even to the extent of
having inbuilt mechanisms not just for learning language,
but even for grammatical constructions.
Secondly, genetic variations have a considerable affect on
the intellectual abilities and other characteristics of human
beings. For example, identical-twin studies show us that in
some cases, autism can be triggered by nurturing — but
only when nature has dealt out a particular combination of
genes.
Ultimately, we are the result of complex interactions
between the environment and our genes.
In the end…
Therefore…
In conclusion…
Q: Experimentation can be unethical,
but how could you test nature v nurture
on twins?
Social behaviour
Quite simply, feral children are usually entirely
unaware of the needs and desires and others.
The concepts of morals, property and possessions
are alien to them, and they can't show empathy
with other people. If brought up by animals, they
don't even identify themselves as human, but
probably regard humans as "the enemy".
(from www.feralchildren.com/en/nature.php)
The Indian Wolf-Girls
In a modern version of the Romulus and Remus story, two young girls
wer e discovered under the care of a she-wolf in 1920, in Godamur i,
India. The girls were taken to an orphanage in Midnapore (now part of
Orissa). The children, Kamala, aged eight and Amala, aged 18 mo nths,
behaved exact ly like small wild animal s. They slept during the day and
woke by night. They remained on all-fours, enjoyed raw meat, and were
given to biting and attacking other children if provoked. They could smell
raw meat from a distance, and they had an acute sense of sight and
hearing. The youngest child, Amala, died one year later, but Kamala
lived for nine years in the orphanage until she died of illness at the age
of 17. Kama la did acquire a small vocabulary, but she remained very
different to other children until the time of her death.
Kaspar Hauser
Kaspar was discovered in 1828 in Nuremberg, Germany. He was
unsteady on his feet, and only spoke the phrase 'I want to be a
horsema n like my father is'. Kaspar was about 16 years old, but he
behaved like a small child. It appears that for most of his early
childhood, Kaspar was impr isoned in a cage, with hardly any contact
with the outs ide world. When a mirror was handed to him he used to
look behind him to find the person in the mirror, and could not
understand how faraway objects appeared smal ler than objects close
by. Kaspar had a keen sense of smell. He detested mea t and alcohol,
and was offended by the s mell of flowe rs. He loved wooden horses, and
he thought the sky was full o f candles. Unlike many other of the cases
described here, Kaspar did learn much, but in 1833 he was
assa ssinated . The mystery of his early life and violent deat h have never
been satisfactorily answered.
Victor, The Wild Child of Aveyron
Victor, a boy of about 11 or 12, was discovered foraging for roots and
acorns in the woods near Aveyron, France in 1799. Victor was ta ken to
Paris, where he appeare d to be human only in appearance. Vict or
behaved like an animal , ate rotten food with pleasure, was incapable of
distinguishing hot from cold, and spe nt much of his time rocking back
and forth like a caged animal. Victor was taken into the care of the
brilli ant scientist, Dr Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, who dedicated hims elf to
the education of the boy. Victor proved to be a very difficult subject.
Over the years, Victor only learned two terms, 'lait', and 'oh Dieu'1. His
sense of touch seemed t o be far more important than his sense of
sight, he did not demo nstrate an ability to distinguish right from wrong,
and like Peter before him, he was indifferent to sex. He did however,
learn some menial tasks, such as sett ing a tab le. Victor lived the rest of
his life in the care of his housekeeper, and died in 1828 at the age of
40.
“When the child has adverse experiences
— loss, threat, neglect, and injury —
there can be disruptions of
neurodevelopment that will result in
neural organization that can lead to
compromised functioning throughout
life.”
Dr Bruce D Perry, Childhood Experience
and the Expression of Genetic Potential
Read the “Identical Personalities” article,
then answer the questions on the next slide.
QUESTIONS
1. Do you think personality traits are primarily inherited or influenced
by environment? What is your evidence?
2. Why do you think nature versus nurture is debated? Do you think it
is possible to answer this question definitively? Why or why not?
3. Who might be most interested in resolving the nature versus
nurture debate? What effect might a resolution have on our society?
4. If you were raising identical twins, what might you do to make sure
that they were unique individuals? Explain your answer
5. Based on what you have learned, do you think it is possible to
change your personality? Why or why not? If so, how would you go
about making changes?
6. If you are not a twin, would you rather be an identical or a fraternal
twin? Why? What do you think would be some of the challenges of
being a twin? If you are a twin, write a couple of sentences about the
experience. Is it fun? Difficult? If you have other siblings, is your
relationship with your twin different from the relationship with your
other siblings? If so, what makes it different?