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Motherless Monkeys

"...monkey infants were reared without any contact whatsoever from birth on. The infants were isolated for periods that ranged from three months to one year. During this time, ...the infants saw no living creature, not even a human hand."

"After their period of solitary confinement, the animals' reactions were observed in various test situations. A three-month isolation had comparatively little effect. But longer periods led to dramatic disturbances. The animals huddled in a corner of the cage, clasped themselves, and rocked back and forth."

... "When they were brought together with normally reared age-mates, the results were pathetic. There was none of the active chasing and playful romping that is characteristic of monkeys at that age. Whenever the normals took an aggressive lunge at them, the monkeys reared in isolation were unable to fight back. They withdrew, huddled, rocked-and bit themselves. ..."When these motherless monkeys became mothers themselves, they seemed to have no trace of love for their offspring. Most of them just ignored their infants. In a few cases there was hideous abuse. The mothers crushed the infant's head to the floor, chewed off it's toes or fingers, or bit it to death."

What have we learned from this misery? That environment provides the clues and examples on how to behave? That seperate but equal is not equal? If you could gather every homeless New Yorker and put them into Madison Square Garden; what would you tell them all to do?

Motherless monkeys are an artificial creation. A monkey raised in isolation does not know how to reproduce. They must be artificialy inseminated in order to see what kind of "mothers" they make. They do not exist in nature.

The "homeless" of New York are arguably in the same position. They are created by a social process. A process designed to remove people from the general populace. Economically handicaped people caught in a process of elimination. They are teritorially challanged from the minute they "hit the street".