Feral children and enculturated apes

[A. Katz]

>Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 12:03:11 EST
>From: Steve Long <Salinas17 at AOL.COM>
>To: FUNKNET at listserv.rice.edu
>Subject: The Culture vs Biology Experiment
>
>In a message dated 12/3/02 3:00:34 AM, dan.everett at MAN.AC.UK writes:
><< It is an interesting research question to consider how we might (or if we
>might) tease apart the different contributions from biology and culture to
>human language development. >>
>
>  Since the cultural contribution would be far easier (not
>necessarily ethically) to remove, the experiment is simple to conceptualize.
>Take a normal new born human and raise him in as complete absence from any
>contact with language as is possible, to some variable age x.   Then find out
>a) what language he uses and b) what language learning capability he has, at
>age x. (I.e, under controlled conditions, create the laboratory equivalent of
>a "wolf boy.")

Haven't the actual feral children whose case histories we
know already established that children do not come up with
language unless they're brought up within a language
speaking environment?

If we want a controlled experiment (without regard to
ethics) then cutting the caretakers' tongues out is not enough.
Humans who have been exposed to Language can
transmit it as a means of communication without using normal
articulatory apparatus. The homesigns devised in deaf homes
are Language, too. And they are not Language independently
arrived at, despite their originality, since the big hurdle
is internalizing the concept of Language, not its
technical implementation.

A controlled experiment would best be undertaken by allowing
non-enculturated apes to raise a human child in their own
community. Nobody would actually do this, but as a thought
experiment, isn't the outcome pretty obvious?

Conversely, there currently are ongoing experiments in the
other direction. Savage-Rumbaugh has successfully
transmitted symbolic language to her subjects. I am in the
beginning stages of a similar experiment, using conventional
symbols.


            --Aya Katz

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