Anna (wolf child)
Anna (March 6, 1932 , † August 6, 1942 ) was the name of a so-called wolf child from Pennsylvania who was studied by the American sociologist Kingsley Davis and David Skuse .
biography
Anna was the illegitimate child of a severely mentally handicapped woman. She had been tied to a chair for six years. Her grandfather, who lived in the same house, wished not to see his illegitimate granddaughter. When Anna was found in 1938, she was severely malnourished and expressionless, and looked completely apathetic. After a year she had learned to hold things and could walk. She later learned to understand prompts, recognized people, and learned to keep herself clean. It was only after over two years that she started babbling like a baby. By the age of nine she had the maturity of a two-year-old, could call people by name, play with other children and express herself in a few simple sentences. Anna died at the age of ten.
Interpretations
Kingsley Davis, who investigated the case and compared it to the case of the wolf child Isabelle , believed that Anna was likely to have been mentally retarded from birth because she was developing so differently from Isabelle. But he also pointed out a difference between the two wolf children: Anna had been imprisoned alone, while Isabelle had been held prisoner with her mother. Dieter Zimmer sees this as the reason for the differences in later life between the two wolf children.
literature
- Davis, Kingsley: "Extreme Social Isolation of a Child". In: American Journal of Sociology, 45, 1940, pp. 554-565
- Davis, Kingsley: "Final Note on a Case of Extreme Isolation". In: American Journal of Sociology, 52, 1947, pp. 432-437
Web links
- Dieter E. Zimmer : Wild Children (PDF; 202 kB) From Dieter E. Zimmer: Experiments in Life. Haffmans Verlag , Zurich 1989, pp. 21–47; Paperback edition Heyne Verlag , Munich 1993; Chapter title "Tarzan's poor cousins - About wild children and wolf children"
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107784149/alice-marie-harris
- ^ Sara Meadows: "The Child as Thinker - The Development and Acquisition of Cognition in Childhood". 2003. Routledge; P. 321
- ↑ a b Dieter E. Zimmer: Wild children - see web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Anna |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American wolf child |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 6, 1932 |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 6, 1942 |