Babies Documentary Analysis

A powerful sense of community and others before self is expressed by the Amish, according to the Encyclopedia of American Religious History.

When reading “A World of Babies” by Alma Gottlieb and Judy S. DeLoache, the book highlighted a multitude of societies around the world. These societies include the American Puritans, Beng from Ivory Coast West Africa, the people of Bali, the Muslim Turks, the Warlpiri from Australia, the Fulani in West Africa, and the Ifaluk from Micronesia and how each have different attitudes when it comes to breastfeeding, where the baby should sleep, what woman should or should not eat while pregnant, how to carry the baby, their religion and more . The book also shows the many parents’ ideas about their children and childcare compared to others across the globe. By looking at children around the world we get different perspectives, find out minute details such as infant mortality, and how economic status can affect child rearing. Learning the different ways people from other countries raise their children and cope with the many challenges around them is astounding. Just because you lack certain resources such as a tub or a particular formula does not mean one cannot raise a healthy baby. There is no right way to raise a child but this handbook gives you pointers so parents can choose the best way to do so.

It is true that the ways the parents raise their children will decide how well the children grow, especially the mothers who impact their children the most. There is no right or wrong in how a mother takes care of her children. All of them want the best for their children. The only difference is the level of intensity in how to raise a child. In Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, Amy Chua, a professor at Yale Law School believes that the ways Chinese mothers raise their children are the most effective ways. Her main purpose of this article is to state the differences between Western mothers and Chinese mothers which

After watching the documentary, “Babies”, I learned specifically about the social interaction between babies and their mothers. Socialization is a huge part in the younger years of life because it sets a basis of social norms that should be followed in that certain baby’s society throughout their life. There were four families touched on in the documentary from four different countries; Japan, Mongolia, Africa and America. Many similarities and differences were recognized and easily helped illustrate how diverse the world is.

The family care for their own and the Amish community gives assistance as needed. Therefore, the way how mainstream American life is driven by technology, I don’t think many Americans will take on the Amish culture.The Amish culture believes in the idea that everything has a reason in life. Their philosophy comes from their deep-rooted Christian faith from the church. They follow the basic tenets of the Christian religion by emphasizing on adult baptism, simplicity, community, separation from popular culture and the division of the church. In 1693, the Amish people formed their own branch of Anabaptism in Switzerland and eastern France under the leadership of their founder Jakob Ammann.All of the Amish communities today are from that group. We already know that within the Amish culture they do everything with hands, but there is some selective technology they do use by permit for agriculture. They use the tractor to help with the farming and time management. For the American society, farmers use computers, cell phones, cars and other technology, but for the Amish, they reject this technology because they believe it will do harm in their

Children learn to act in accordance to their culture due to what their parents teach them and what they learn in school. Different countries have their own way of cooking, driving and most important, teaching. A child who is in a preschool in America, will not experience the same cultural activities as a child in China or Japan. The video Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited demonstrates how preschools in these three countries teach their students in accordance to their culture. This video also shows different Behaviorism and Constructivism aspects for each school.

In Meredith Small’s article Our Babies, Ourselves she focuses on people’s social and psychological development through examining the different cultural aspects of raising a child. During this process she compares the American perspective of treating babies, to those of the Gusii and the Dutch. Throughout her examination many points are made that I believe can give the reader’s a valuable understanding of the impact of different means of parenthood on a child’s future development.

The movie Parenthood (1989) revolves around the psychological stresses that are faced by families. From the name of the movie, the main theme is coined, involving the issues that are faced by parents while raising up their children. The movie is centered in the family of Gil and Karen, and their extended family. Set in a middle-class white society, the anxieties and pains of raising children are presented in the movie. Gil Buckman is a parent and businessman. His wife, Karen, comes out as a nearly perfect parent, and always stays at home. Gil and Karen have three children. The oldest child is Kevin, a nine-year old boy with emotional problems. The emotional problems that are experienced by Kevin form a very significant aspect of the movie,

The film Babies takes a look at the development of four babies from four different cultures as they progress through their first year. The film does not try to answer if nature or nurture is more important to the development of these children. However, it does allow observers to explore the interaction between these two complex factors.

Babies (Balmes, 2010) is an unusual documentary film that does not have any narration. This documentary film follows four babies from four different countries: Ponijao from Namibia, Bayar from Mongolia, Mari from Japan, and Hattie from the United States. The film takes viewers to these four babies’ development from their birth to roughly around age one. These four babies are different starting from when they are born. While Namibian parents gets no help from hospital, American parents does not even think of giving birth to the children without going to the hospital. When the baby is born, Hattie meets the world with bunch of medical equipment whereas Namibian child gets no such test. Anyone who encounters Babies (Balmes, 2010) would realize how different culture affects children even from their infancy. Most distinctively, it can be inferred that children development differs by the culture of parenting, the child’s attachment, and the child’s motor development.

The documentary Babies by Thomas Balmès is a film that takes place in four very different locations around the world. The documentary follows four babies and their families from when they are first born as they grow up and are able to walk. We watch Ponijao grow up in Namibia, Bayar grow up in Mongolia, Hattie grow up in San Francisco, and Mari grow up in Tokyo. Because the babies are from such different places, the documentary allows us to see what it is like growing up in cultures that we are currently unfamiliar with. The film opens up your eyes to the various forms of living in other areas around the world. In this paper, I will discuss the universal themes I noticed, my personal reflection of the film, the various

‘Babies’ is a documentary film which chronicles the first year of life of four babies spanning the globe. Documentarian Thomas Balmès fans out to the grasslands of Namibia, the plains of Mongolia, the high rises of Tokyo and the busy streets of San Francisco in a study of culture, societal structure, geography and tradition, along with parental love and the impact all these elements have on child rearing. In the hunting and gathering society of Namibia and pastoral Mongolia, Balmès follows Ponijao and Bayar and in postindustrial Tokyo and San Francisco we are introduced to Mari and Hattie. While the 1:18 film has no real dialogue, viewers are able to get a distinct feel for each baby’s personality, the role they play within the family

There is many questions on how to parent a child in order to help them be successful in life. Although parenting style various greatly, most all parents put into practice what regulations in which they think will help their child succeed in life. Some parents, known as Chinese parents are extremely strict, and on the other end of the spectrum there is western parents, who do not expect as much from their child. In Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom,” Chua explains what it is like to have Chinese parenting techniques. She attempts to justify the struggles, beliefs, and methods of Chinese parents, as compared to western parents, and how they both have the end goal - to prepare their child to succeed in life.

To better understand how infant care varies within a culture and between cultures, a U.S. mother, Patrice, was interviewed about her infant care practices. Patrice is 53 years old and is a mother to four girls ages 15, 18, 23, and 24. Patrice was born into an American Catholic family with Irish and British descent. She identified herself as a middle-class American. Patrice attended college and got her Bachelor’s degree so she is highly educated. Although she had many different jobs throughout her life, Patrice stated that her main career was being a mother as her children are very important to her. The study of Patrice’s infant care practices as well as the different

“Everybody loves babies”, a trademark quote from the documentary movie “Babies” features an insight on the many reasons babies are loved. Although many documentaries are narrated, director Thomas Balmès uses a different approach by eliminating a voiceover. By manifesting this film without narration, he focuses on a learning technique all babies go through in their early stages of life. Aiming for viewers to learn from observation, as babies do, we are left to focus on the babies, their environment and interactions. Through subtitles, this film reveals the different locations the footage of the four newborns are from. By viewing the babies different upbringings from different cultures, we learn how the various lifestyles of each culture impacts a child’s development. The babies are Hattie from California, Mari from Japan, Bayar from Mongolia, and Ponijao from Namibia.The film shows the infancy and toddlerhood period of the babies as well as their development physically, cognitively, and socially.