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Thursday, November 30, 2006

Nature vs Nurture - Case of the Feral Children

Have you ever wondered, whether we smile and laugh and cry, because we are just born human, OR we were taught to smile and laugh and cry ? Is the development of the human brain dependent on the stimuli we receive from the human society during our childhood ? Are humans naturally born with the capability to learn a language ? Are humans naturally endowed with traits like morality and spirituality OR are they just nurtured by the human society ? And finally, is it possible for a human to live like a wolf, eating raw meat and be nocturnal, hunting for food at night ?

These are some complex questions that cannot be easily answered by some experiments in the lab or by some demographic studies or surveys... (Unfortunately) scientists have managed to learn a good deal about such questions, by virtue of the feral children - children who have grown up without much contact of the human society due to some unfortunate circumstances...

Last week, I got to read this very touching real story of two girls called Kamala and Amala, who were captured living with the wolves, in a place called Midnapore,India in 1920... They were found during some hunting expedition by a priest by name Reverend Joseph Singh and are captured and brought to his orphanage. Rev. Singh and his wife, were kind and patient enough to try, for the next 8 years, to teach the girls to be human and fortunate for us, Rev. Singh kept a very detailed journal of his "experiments" with Kamala and Amala, along with some precious photographs...



This is a very small online "book" (the printed book costs $250) with just 42 pages, neatly organized into separate chapters for different traits and how they improved over time. Rev. Singh details many of his experiments that he did to find out the nature of the girls' minds. Some of the interesting things he observed are as follows:

  • The girls' limbs were adapted to walk like wolves in all four limbs. Kamala, the 8 year old girl takes almost 3 years to be able to stand up in two legs. Even then, and after that, she could walk very slowly, and Rev. Singh records that, she would run on all fours when she wanted to go fast.
  • The girls felt very comfortable going out in the dark - that was in contrast to the human nature of being uncomfortable or afraid in the dark. They are recorded to have a good night vision and be uncomfortable going out during the day.
  • The girls, initially disliked being with humans and preferred to stay in the company of the dogs in the orphanage and other animals. It takes almost 4 years of patience before they bond with the other children in the orphanage. In the initial years, Rev. Singh records an incident where Kamala bites a child.
  • After being taught by Rev. Singh and his wife for 8 years, Kamala the elder girl, still was unable to pronounce words with two syllables easily and was unable to construct meaningful sentences. Over 8 years, she had just acquired a vocabulary of a few hundred words and would just mention those words with hand signs for communication.
  • Even, toilet training was difficult to achieve with Kamala. After 5 years, she would use the toilet, only when Rev. Singh's wife was around.
  • Rev. Singh also records various interesting observations like the fact that Kamala always had a liking towards red colored objects and clothes. Another such interesting observation is this one: "The top was a puzzle to Kamala. She would watch the top whirling, while the boys were playing with it. At times, she would catch it while it was turning round and examine it thoroughly. She would throw it down, trying to make it go round, but when she found the top did not spin, she would get angry and bite it."
If you read the full story of Kamala and Amala, you might realize for yourself, what Nature and Nurture can do to the human brain and how much of our "human" traits do we owe to our upbringing!

Finally, the feral children website has a lot more information about what scientists have learned so far, regarding the puzzle of "Nature vs Nurture" from many such feral children and what our understanding is, with respect to human traits like language acquisition, neurological development, dietary habits etc.,

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