Feral Children

Last Thursday, the class debated over the issue of whether or not certain human behaviors are hard wired into us or if they are learned through outside influence. Personally, I believe that the only thing that is "hard-wired" into us is out ability to breath, which comes with out having to think about it, and our natural need to survive. However, it is not really hard-wired into how exactly to survive. We are not born knowing how to hunt or how to gather, these are things we are taught. But then there is also the issue of what defines us as human. Are we human because we build shelters for ourselves and because we can do things other animals can't, or are we taught to be human by other humans? In class, I mentioned a story I had heard about a girl who essentially, from age 3 to 8, was raised by dogs, becoming a feral child. Her parents were alcoholics who left her outside and she crawled into a hovel that was occupied by non-domestic dogs for warmth. While the girl's search for warmth was perhaps instinctual, her ability to act human was, apparently, not. She would run like a dog, bark like a dog and at other dogs, would not eat with her hands, and would drink water with her tongue. This is an obvious scenario of how outside forces influence the development of the human attitude. And although it is difficult to say if this girl chose to act like a dog for some other reasons other than learning them as her mind developed, it is very likely that had she grown up around humans, she would have acted like one.