If a human baby is reared up by monkeys in a forest, can he grow up with abilities to compete with normal men?

Question

Can he shift to a city after attaining adulthood and then learn everything in a few years to become reasonably equal with other normal men of his age?

Answer 1

There are some capacities that tend to go away if they are never developed.  Blind people, for example, don't lose the part of their brain that used to be used for vision... over time it just starts getting used for something else.  Someone blind from birth wouldn't be able to use eyes even if they were somehow bestowed upon them.

In your example, one capacity that we know would be lost is language.  There have, sadly, been children to have been abandoned to the wilderness or locked in a closet for the first decade of their life without any appreciable contact with other human beings.  They may be taught a few words, but past a certain point they will never become fluent in any human language.

Experiences with such children also suggest that certain aspects of moral and social behaviour operate in a similar way.  If they are never developed, they can never really understand the intricacies of why you should wear clothes, how you interact with other people, or doing abstract work for abstract money to buy very concrete pleasantries.  Again, though they can be trained (like an animal) to perform certain rudimentary tasks, they never show any proficiency or appreciation of them.  It is just something done by rote.

Now, it may be that such a person does just fine in physical tasks, though that would be a pretty dubious matter too.  Wild animals seldom get great nutrition, take care of themselves poorly compared to our understanding of health, and are prone to disease and neglect.  A human in such a situation will probably do far worse than an athlete produced by a learned civilization:  we just know so much better what to eat, how to train, and what to avoid.

So the bottom line is pretty much no.  A feralan will not really be better at anything than a civilized person... perhaps not even at getting along with animals.  And it is very likely that they will never be able to adapt in any appreciable way.  There's a reason civilization is so popular:  it works!

Answer 2

No. The human being requires human contact in order to develop properly mentally. Growing up with monkeys will do nothing for mental growth.

Answer 3

His ability to survive in jungles will be significantly enhanced, the kill or be killed gene will lead him to attack and fear any foreign or unknown presence unknown to him in jungles.

Unfortunately his power of reasoning and the capacity to love and coexist will not.

Answer 4

he would become a feral child. he would behave like a monkey, his aptitude for language and communication would be impaired. There have been cases of kids being raised by dogs and growing up to behave like dogs. they are called feral children- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child

Answer 5

Yes. He can grow up, but not with same abilities to compete with normal men.

Answer 6

A little, yes.

Answer 7

no, because he wont even make it to adulthood, will be killed fast, human baby`s cannot adapt in a forest,