I was reading about the Indian girls Kamala and Amala that were found living with a pack of wolves in 1920. Apparently there are quite a few cases of children who have been raised, for one reason or another, by wild animals. It seems as though most of these "feral children" are intelligence of are capable of acquiring it after being taken out of their wild lives. But while they are living in the wild, basically living as an animal, do they have any sense of identity? I would like to think that these children do have some idea of themseleves as an individual, but if they have had no contact with humans, or were do not remember it on account of infantile amnesia, would they know anything about personality? Basically my question is, is personal identity instilled in a person by nature, or is it something that humans acquire through interaction with other humans? I don't know.
posted by BrianG at 2:01 PM
2 Comments:
It is an interesting question to wonder what it would be like to be raised where no other human was. I would like to think that we would have a since of identity. I think most animals have a since of identity, we just don't always recognize it because we look for other things. Animals in the wild, expetially pack animals, form rankings. You have the Alpha male and female, from there they kinda fill in the ranks. This is an identity for these animals. They look to the Alpha to lead them and bring them food. They each have different jobs. Whether it is scouting, hunting, raising young, they assume those roles.
So I think that if a human were to be raised by wolves, they would have a since of self, I believe with enough time they may question and wonder why they are different. Though who knows?
Amongst all the other fun things a person raised by wolves would experience including the raw food, it is an interesting question to consider whether a human would have a personal identity, but I agee with stampede; the identity they form may not be like ours but they would definitely know their place in the group they live with. If no other humans are around to interact with then the people growing up with wolves would identify themselves by the wolves they grew up with, that's all. They would most likely bark, nudge, and fight for food just like the rest because that is their immediate environment. Animals develop personalities based on their genes and their surroundings just like humans do.
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