Читать книгу Essentials of Sociology - George Ritzer - Страница 132

Sociologists study individuals in general but rarely concern themselves with any particular individual. A primary sociological question is what, if anything, distinguishes humans as individuals from other animals. Some argue it stems from characteristics such as a larger brain or an opposable thumb. However, most sociologists believe the essential difference between humans and other animals is the human capability of having distinctive interaction with other humans.

An important source of this view is data about individuals who grew up in social isolation and did not experience normal human interaction during their development. For instance, we have information on cases in which children have been locked in closets or in single rooms for much or all of their childhoods (Curtiss 1977; Davis 1940, 1947). More recently, five children, ages 2 through 13, were discovered by authorities in York, Pennsylvania. They had lived their entire lives with their parents in a single room in a private home without any functioning utilities; their water source was rain dripping through the roof. The children had no birth certificates and had received no formal schooling, and there was no evidence that they had ever received any medical care, including vaccinations. They suffered from physical and mental health problems and were below average in terms of educational level (“Police Discover Five Children” 2010).

Of related interest is the existence of feral, or wild, children—that is, children who have been raised by animals in the wilderness (Benzaquen 2006; Dombrowski, Gischlar, and Mrazik 2011; Friedmann and Rusou 2015; Newton 2002). Oxana Malaya is from a small village in Ukraine (Grice 2006). In 1986, after being abandoned by her parents at age three, she crawled into a hovel that housed dogs. The “Dog Girl” lived there for five years before a neighbor reported her existence. When she emerged, she could hardly speak. Like the dogs she lived with, she barked, ate with her tongue, and ran about on all fours. Years later, when she was living in a home for the mentally disabled, Oxana was found to have the mental capacity of a six year old. She could not spell her name or read. She was able to communicate like other humans and talk because she had acquired some speech before she began living with dogs. She had also learned to eat with her hands and to walk upright (Lane 1975; Shattuck 1980).

The concept of feral children relates to the fundamental question of the relationship between nature and nurture. The “nature” argument is that we are born to be the kinds of human beings that we ultimately become; it is built into our “human nature” (Settle et al. 2010). The “nurture” argument is that we are human beings because of the way we are nurtured—that is, the way we are raised by other human beings who teach us what it is to be human. Of course, both nature and nurture are important (Eagly and Wood 2017). However, the cases of feral children indicate that nurture is in many ways more important than nature in determining the human beings we become.