Feral child

When Wolf children or wild children are called children, the long isolated grew up at a young age, a time of other people and therefore differ in their learned behavior of normal children socialized. It should Wolfskinder ( partial) of animals, such as wolves, dogs or bears, have been adopted and have lived with them. Most reports of such cases are, however, challenged by science.

The Science Behind

There are many stories and legends about wolf children, but the science has been able to study only a few real cases. Since the mid-14th century, at least 53 feral children have been described ( leaving aside the documentation by Wolf Child (World War II ) ab). The reports always come second hand and not itself of the witnesses for the few facts around grew imaginative interpretations. The described in the past as well as in some cases current sources require a certain credulity of the reader. In terms of their typology is a relationship with the popular superstition of the Christian Middle Ages changelings. Both manipulations it acted to the alleged declaration of disabilities with, among others, the following characteristics: a specific form of idiocy, lack of language and memory, an empty or restless roving glance, abnormal movement patterns and animal eating habits.

In the 18th century Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus coined the term of "Homo ferus " wild man who behaved like an animal, usually walked on all fours, could not speak and was very hairy. When this term coined, attitudes towards the wild man walked. Did, for example, the myth still underline of the founding of Rome to the rearing of Romulus and Remus by a she-wolf the wonderful origin of heroes, later were wild children as evil messengers (for example, in a message on a 1631 aufgefundenes at Southampton Child) and as objects courtly curiosity, so they owe after the Enlightenment their attention to a scholarly audience and an emerging public anthropological and pedagogical issues. That man can find the excellent place only in the bosom of society, which is intended for him by nature, and is without civilization one of the weakest and unverständigsten animals, for example, was the basic conception of the physician and educator Jean Itard, which he in a first report ( spotted for the first time in 1797 and later caught ) by Victor of Aveyron expressed. Itard defended his opinion even then against all objections, as the attempts Victor fully integrate into human society, were largely failed.

Linnaeus's "Homo ferus "

With the 10th edition of Systema Naturae ( 1758) began Carl Linnaeus in his classification of man take a group, which he called " tetrapus, mutus hirsutus " ( walk on all fours, can not speak, is covered by skin ) characterized and from other people distinguished by their behavior and appearance:

Juvenis Ursinus lithuanus ( Lithuanian Bear Child)
Juvenis Lupinus hessensis ( Hessian wolf boy )
Juvenis ovinus Hibernus ( Irish Sheep Boy)
Juvenis Hannoverianus. ( Hanoveranischer boy)
Pueri 2 Pyrenaici (two Pyrenean boys)
John Leodicensis ( Liège Hans)

With the 12th edition of Systema Naturae (1766) three additional cases were added:

Juvenis Bovinus Bambergensis ( Bamberg calf Boy)
Transisalana Puella ( girl of Kranenburg )
Puella Camp Anica ( Champagnisches girls)

Notable cases

Literary Wolf Children

In legends and fiction many wolf children are treated, which this application turned down for the benefit. Jean -Jacques Rousseau's concept of the " noble savage " has reinforced this idea in Europe since the Enlightenment.

Already in the mythical history of Rome, Romulus and Remus by a she-wolf ( lupa ) suckled. Also in the descent myth of the early Turks there is a similar story with the name Asena Legend; here said to have been been the last survivor of his tribe and a boy raised by wolves. Also, Wolf Dietrich, protagonist of the eponymous medieval German heroic epic 'Wolf Dietrich, spent part of his childhood in the care of wolves. The same is reported by the Slovak stretching Waligor and Wyrwidub.

A famous modern literary figure is reared by wolves Mowgli from the Jungle Book (1894, 1895) by Rudyard Kipling. Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs from 1912 until today has become a very popular version of the literary tradition of the hero who was in the animals a better person.

Feral child

The Science Behind

Linnaeus's "Homo ferus "

Notable cases

Literary Wolf Children

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