Comments on: Back to the Jungle

Back to the Jungle

HP LaserJet P10006 — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:07:51 -0800

Rochom P'ngieng, the feral "Cambodian Jungle Girl" who went missing in 1989 at the age of 8, and made news some three years ago (previously) when she surfaced after almost 20 years alone in the jungle, has fled back into the wild (according to news reports).

By: nevercalm

nevercalm — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:18:40 -0800

Wow, that whole story is kind of heartbreaking. I hope she's where she's happiest.

By: fatbird

fatbird — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:21:15 -0800

Wasn't this an episode of Deep Space Nine?

By: happyroach

happyroach — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:27:13 -0800

Frankly, I'm suspicious of the whole "ran away to the jungle" thing. Odds are this was actually a case of severe abuse/neglect with a fanciful cover story.

By: nevercalm

nevercalm — Sat, 29 May 2010 18:13:12 -0800

I just spent an hour or so reading the story of Genie from the "previously" link. Jesus GHI Christ Walking on Lemonade, people can really be fucked up to kids.

By: The otter lady

The otter lady — Sat, 29 May 2010 19:00:20 -0800

I'm glad she's free.

By: availablelight

availablelight — Sat, 29 May 2010 19:02:24 -0800

The ligature marks on her hand and foot seem to point to her being held captive at one point; so do the relatively uncalloused feet one observer reported....and the refusal for a DNA test by the family make this all seem like no one really knows who she is or what the story actually is.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sat, 29 May 2010 20:26:27 -0800

fled back to the jungle after struggling to cope with modern life. Whatever the case, I like this story best. Stories are a jungle.

By: treeshar

treeshar — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:15:25 -0800

From one of the links: "John Ssebunya was found in the forest in Uganda, aged six, in 1989. He had fled a violent father, and for two years a group of African Grey monkeys accepted him as a peripheral member of their group." Whoa.

By: bwg

bwg — Sat, 29 May 2010 23:16:32 -0800

Given the state of affairs in the world these days, I can't say I blame her.

By: doublehappy

doublehappy — Sun, 30 May 2010 00:29:46 -0800

Everything about this story seems a little off to me.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Sun, 30 May 2010 00:59:44 -0800

Yeah, it's not very heartening to see how little the linked news outlets seem to have researched or even thought about this story. The trouble with the "she is our daughter, who escaped and lived in the wild for 19 years" story is that it doesn't even satisfy the barest requirements of plausibility. I mean, to begin with: everyone says this woman crawled out of the jungle, starving, skinny, shaking, covered with dirt, having attempted to steal food from a worker's lunch pail without being detected. These are not the actions of a person who's spent two decades living totally alone in the jungle. A person who survived in the jungle for 19 years all alone would have some facilities, some expertise, some handy, identifiable skills which would stand out; she would have to be strong, fit, sharp, cautious, and alert. This woman appears to have been none of those things; she was tired, weak, confused, unable to cope, and reduced to attempting to steal food. What's more, from all accounts listed in these articles, in three full years this woman apparently never learned to speak more than a few words; no matter how alone they'd been, an adult human being alert and intelligent enough to survive one her own in a jungle for almost twenty years would be able to learn to speak with practice. This is a strong and in fact almost certain indicator that the lack of speech stems from mental disability or trauma rather than loneliness. There's something poignant and somewhat saddening, I think, about a father who's convinced that a woman is his long-lost daughter because she has similar deep scars on her wrist. But scars have lots of causes, and it seems much more likely that being tied up caused them in this case. There are some unsettling little details about the situation – say for example this bit from the Guardian's article (emphasis mine):

One theory among sceptics is that the marks on her wrist are the result of years of being bound, common practice among peasant villagers in dealing with mentally ill people.

Ugh. Who knows what really happened? All I know is: I don't believe that this woman survived for two decades alone in the jungle like this. There's almost certainly a much more frightening and unfortunate story.

By: eeeeeez

eeeeeez — Sun, 30 May 2010 01:57:04 -0800

A person who survived in the jungle for 19 years all alone [...] would be strong, fit, sharp, cautious, and alert No, they would be sluggish, disease-ridden, and starving. Which is why people tend not to live in jungles, and why the ones who do are dying out.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Sun, 30 May 2010 02:03:29 -0800

eeeeeez: “No, they would be sluggish, disease-ridden, and starving. Which is why people tend not to live in jungles, and why the ones who do are dying out.” Well, that was my point, really. She sounds like she was barely scraping by. It just doesn't seem likely that she just happened to be lucky enough to survive twenty years of barely scraping by, particularly in an area with a social framework that doesn't seem to frown on tying people up and keeping them isolated for long periods of time if they exhibit any mental illness.

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Sun, 30 May 2010 07:44:41 -0800

Every feral child story ends up being bullshit. Always.

By: spindle

spindle — Sun, 30 May 2010 10:18:52 -0800

What's more, from all accounts listed in these articles, in three full years this woman apparently never learned to speak more than a few words; no matter how alone they'd been, an adult human being alert and intelligent enough to survive one her own in a jungle for almost twenty years would be able to learn to speak with practice. if the Genie case is any indication, there are definite developmental windows in which it is possible to learn language, and they close at puberty. Genie never did, despite years of intense teaching -- if I remember the case right, she managed to learn some words, though not many, and she never grasped the concept of syntax. and that was with years of working with very, very good teachers; something this woman never had the chance to do. so, actually, her linguistic ability fits the story.

By: castironskillet

castironskillet — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:09:13 -0800

Run, Forest Girl! Run!

By: Ian A.T.

Ian A.T. — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:14:05 -0800

Cambodia's missing 'jungle woman' found in toilet