Encounters with Wild Children: Temptation and Disappointment in the Study of Human Nature

by Adriana S. Benzaquen

Through detailed readings of a wide variety of accounts, debates, and representations, Encounters with Wild Children explores the many different meanings these children were given and the varied responses they elicited. Adriana Benzaquén explains why wild children continue to haunt and fascinate Western scientists and shows how the knowledge they have generated in different disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, pedagogy, linguistics, and sociology, has contributed to the shaping and reshaping of the modern understanding of "the child" and affected the social and institutional practices directed at all children in schools, welfare, mental health, and the law.

Genres: Anthropology

400 pages, Hardcover

First published April 5, 2006

Reviews

[Susanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best thing about this book is that it's not just another occasion for these children to be exploited and used. The author's voice is sometimes a bit pedantic, sometimes musing, sometimes otherworldly. But her interest in the subject is apparent, and she does a thorough job of analyzing the types of knowledge gained (as well as the many costs) by the intense scrutiny--scientific and popular--these feral children were subjected to. Not only were these children all given their fifteen minutes of fame, but they each were discarded by their protectors when public interest died out. The children themselves remain unknown, unknowable, but the obsessions of certain people in specific historical time are thoroughly explored. All this without relying on freak-show tactics.

[Jakub Sláma · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me there were too many not very interesting digressions and too much discussion of discourse and stuff, rather than the actual stories of wild children (a case in point: Genie is on the cover, but she is actually discussed only superficially on three or so pages). So while I liked the book overall and appreciated how well-researched it seemed to be, I didn't really enjoy it as much as I had expected. The thing is: beware, if you are looking for a cool book about wild children, maybe don't go for this one, because it's about the discourse on wild children and how it was/is constructed and how it has been developing – rather than about the actual wild children and their stories.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but repeated a lot of information.

[Allison Wear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched but dense.