I suppose cowboy extraordinaire Pecos Bill who was raised by coyotes, tamed a tornado and rescued the drought-stricken agricultural economy of Texas is more urban legend than fact. (LOL)
Bill Dickens (FL) -----Original Message----- From: fabio guillermo rojas [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 7:34 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Feral Children Diego! Diego! The definitive source on outlandish, but possibly true facts is the weekly "Straight Dope Column" in the Chicago Reader, written by Cecil Adams. To sum up Cecil's column, yes, there a few authenticated cases of feral children, but most researchers doubt that any of these were raised by animals, a common misconception. Feral children remain stunted most of their lives, unable to acquire a vocabulary of more than fifty words. See the link below. Fabio Check out: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_046.html On Fri, 6 Sep 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Maybe the topic of feral children is a bit of target from the armchair > list, but I am curious to see if someone could share their knowedge > about this. Do the stories about feral children -"lost or abandoned > children raised in extreme social isolation, either surviving in the > wild through their own efforts or 'adopted' by animals"- have any > truth behind them or are they just "old wives tales"? I guess the > question should be refined: how much truth is there behind > particularly famous stories of feral children (Amala & Kamala, Victor > the wild boy of Aveyron, Wild Peter, Kaspar Hauser, John Ssabunnya, > the Hessian wolf-boy, etc.)? Most importantly, what are the > conclusions and findings -assuming there is a general consensus- about > them? What are the consequences of extreme social isolation in > children regarding their abilities to develope complex forms of > reasoning and abstract thinking? Is there a critical period for > language acquisition? > > Diego > > >
