January 22, 2007: Cambodian jungle woman

[Undertoad]

It's the weekly Cellar IotD/Neatorama collaboration!



From Japan's Mainichi Daily News comes this incredible story of the woman in the center, there.

Cambodian Rochom P'ngieng disappeared at age eight, while herding water buffaloes, in 1988. Now, nearly 20 years later, this woman is said to be one and the same. After living for all that time in the deep jungle, she can only communicate through a series of grunts.

Villagers in this town of 100 in the northeastern province of Rattanakiri have simply dubbed her jungle woman and turned the family's hut into the must-see attraction, with dozens of locals and journalists stopping by to peer inside for a look at her.

So far, the family says she mostly uses sign language to indicate her basic needs. She pats her stomach when she is hungry or needs to go the toilet and has taken a liking to the family's collection of karaoke videos.

Mothers, don't let your eight-year-olds handle the water buffalo herding. They are too young for it, and might get lost.



On the left. She doesn't look too happy, and in fact the caption on this image says she has tried to run back to the jungle a few times, unsuccessfully.

Be sure to visit Neatorama for more neato items every day!

[lumberjim]

The assumption is, then, that this is HER family she is now residing with?

she can only communicate through a series of grunts.

there's a joke in there, but I can't decide whether to go with the Marine(grunt) angle, the perfect woman angle, or the 'that sounds like me after a night of drinking' angle.

[Sheldonrs]

you
i wanna be like you
i wanna walk like you talk like you too
you'll see it too
someone like me
can learn to be like someone like me
can learn to be like some like you
(one more time!)
YEAH!
can learn to be like someone like ME!!!!!!

[monster]

If she was 8 when she went missing, she should not have forgotten her language unless there has been some serious brain injury

[bigw00dy]

Originally Posted by monster

If she was 8 when she went missing, she should not have forgotten her language unless there has been some serious brain injury

I would assume that since she had no one to speak her language to, it would eventually loose its 'bookmark' in her brain. If that makes any sense?

One other note, I wonder if they cut her hair since her return. I would think that after nearly 20 years, even my hair would be longer than her hair is!

[monster]

Originally Posted by bigw00dy

I would assume that since she had no one to speak her language to, it would eventually loose its 'bookmark' in her brain. If that makes any sense?

One other note, I wonder if they cut her hair since her return. I would think that after nearly 20 years, even my hair would be longer than her hair is!

You use language when you think, though, so it's not something you lose with time unless you just stop thinking. Many people who move to a country where a different language is spoken report that at some point they changed the language they thought in, but I find it unlikely that she picked up some animal language to the extent that she thought in it and lost her native tongue.

If she is the long lost daughter, she must either be too traumatized to speak or her vocal chords need "re-training" to make the correct sounds, but in either case she should still understand what is spoken to her.

Regarding the hair, everyone has a natural maximum hair length. For many people this is longer than they are comfortable with, so they never find out how long it will get. Bur mine, for example, only just reaches my shoulders at it's maximum length. Each hair only stays in your head for a certain length of time, then it falls out and (unless you're Elspode) is replaced. If your hair is slow-growing, it doesn't get to be very long before it falls out.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by monster

If she was 8 when she went missing, she should not have forgotten her language unless there has been some serious brain injury

I'd guess she could have forgotten it, but she's in a much better situation than someone who went feral at a younger age. She's probably got the brain structure built up to relearn/remember it, at least.

(Of course my qualification to make this diagnosis is one self-paced psychology course at least ten years ago...)

[Undertoad]

Original entry edited to add the URL for the story.

[Trilby]

I bet her family was all-like, "Oh, don't even try to blame this on your mother! Where you been for, like, twenty daymn years, girl? We figured you done run out with our water buffalo and traded them in for magic beans. Ha, HA!"

[xoxoxoBruce]

She disappeared in 1988 at the age of 8, which makes her 27/28ish. Her mother is 40.

[Trilby]

maybe it's a big scam.

Is the guy in the first picture picking at her arm?

[yesman065]

Originally Posted by Brianna

maybe it's a big scam.

Is the guy in the first picture picking at her arm?

Maybe he was showing the scar talked about in the article.

*sends loving and healing energy to her and her family*
I hate seeing it when this happens.

[SPUCK]

I read that they were doing the paternity tests on the police guy and the girl.

[wolf]

I was wondering about that ... should be a very simple matter, even in Cambodia, to collect samples for DNA testing. I could see several American Talk Show Hosts falling over themselves to get these folks on their show for one of their "Who's Your Daddy" specials.

(All right, I admit it. On the rare occasions that I watch Morey or Montel, I get a kick out of seeing some obviously slutty woman who is certain that so and so is her baby daddy being informed that she is wrong. Particularly if she's already dragged two or three other possible daddies onto the show. This is great TV, much more exciting than Masterpiece Theatre.)