Victor of Aveyron

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Victor of Aveyron (also The Wild Boy of Aveyron) was a feral child who apparently lived his entire childhood naked and alone in the woods before being found wandering the woods near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, France, in 1797. He was captured, but soon escaped, after being displayed in the town. He was additionally periodically spotted in 1798 and 1799.

However, on January 8, 1800, he emerged from the forests on his own. His age was unknown but citizens of the village estimated that he was about twelve years old. His lack of speech, as well as his food preferences and the numerous scars on his body, indicated that he had been in the wild for the majority of his life. While the townspeople received him kindly, it was only a matter of time before word spread and the boy was quickly taken for examination and documentation.

• 1 Study
  • 1.1 Influence of the Enlightenment
  • 1.2 Influence of colonialism
• 2 Education
  • 2.1 Jean Marc Gaspard Itard
  • 2.2 Language
• 3 Dramatization
• 4 In Literature
• 5 Recent commentary
• 6 References
• 7 Further reading
• 8 External links

Study

Shortly after Victor was found, a local abbot and biology professor, Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre, examined him. He removed the boy's clothing and led him outside into the snow, where, far from being upset, Victor began to frolic about in the nude, showing Bonnaterre that he was clearly accustomed to exposure and cold. The local government commissioner, Constans-Saint-Esteve, also observed the boy and wrote that there was "something extraordinary in his behavior, which makes him seem close to the state of wild animals".^[1] The boy was eventually taken to Rodez, where two men, in fact, traveled to discover whether or not he was their missing child. Both men had lost their sons during the French Revolution, but neither claimed the boy as their son. There were other rumors regarding the boy's origins. For example, one rumor insisted that the boy was the illegitimate son of a notaire abandoned at a young age because he was mute.^[2] Itard believed that Victor had "lived in an absolute solitude from his fourth or fifth almost to his twelfth year, which is the age he may have been when he was taken in the Caune woods." That means he presumably lived for seven years in the wilderness.^[3]

It was clear that Victor could hear, but he was taken to the National Institute of the Deaf in Paris for the purpose of being studied by the renowned Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard. Sicard and other members of the Society of Observers of Man believed that by studying, as well as educating the boy, they would gain the proof they needed for the recently popularized empiricist theory of knowledge.^[4] In the context of the Enlightenment, when many were debating what exactly distinguished man from animal, one of the most significant factors was the ability to learn language. By studying the boy, they would also be able to explain the relationship between man and society.

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