Raising A Child: An Analysis Of Cultural Differences

The movie “Babies” was a beautiful film I loved it I actually watched it three times and could not look away it was a very eye opening documentary for me. It is about cultures and differences within them it was truly amazing seeing the different cultures and there parenting methods. I was truly shocked that these four babies are in four very different cultures but all of them were reaching their milestones and developing all around the same time. I would have never thought that the parenting styles would be so similar to each other. In the documentary each child was loved from their parents and family. Each family was very different but all still spent time with there baby and loved them. The film starts from them being born till they are one-year old it shows you how they develop from culture to culture. It shows attachment styles in all four cultures and the results were surprising.

In the film Babies, 4 infants are being observed for the first two years of their lives. Each babies comes from different culture, which shows how the various customs can impact the child’s development. Ponijao is the youngest one in his family and lives in a village in Opuwo Namibia. Bayar lives in Bayanchandmachi, Mongolia. Mari is the first child of a couple who lives in Tokyo Japan, and Hattie lives in Sans Francisco California. The film shows the babies develop cognitively, physically and socially-emotionally, during the infancy and toddler years. The Infancy and toddlerhood period is from birth to 2 years. “This period brings dramatic changes in the body and brain that support the emergence of a wide array of motor, perceptual, and intellectual capacities” (Berk & Meyers, 2016, p.6).

‘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

In the film Babies Thomas Balmès elegantly and wordlessly captures the first year of life through the eyes of four unique cultures. This film follows four babies Panijao from Namibia, Mari from Japan, Hattie from the United States, and Bayarjargal from Mongolia. The main purpose of the film is to show how the four cultures differ in their behaviors with infants. One of the striking differences is the role the parents play in the documentary and how they interact with their newborn infants. In contrast, the film also shows the similarities in infancy even in vastly different environments and cultures.

Spanking is a fiercely debated social issue in many countries, such as the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, and Germany. There are questions over what intensity of pain is suitable until it crosses the threshold into abuse. Up until the mid-20th century it was perfectly okay in most communities for a spanking to cause a child to cry in pain throughout and have difficulty sitting down afterward, even resulting in stripes or bruises for days. Nowadays several think even mere redness of the skin abusive, while others would call it effective discipline. This causes questions as to whether children should be spanked. In addition, whether spanking is an effective method of discipline and at what point does it constitutes child abuse.

I learned several things I did not know before this video, for instance the different stages things form in a baby. The first thing that stood out to me was at twenty five days the heart chamber assembles. Another interesting fact about the embryo’s heart is it beats twice as fast as the mothers. However, at thirty two days the embryo grows arms and legs. Additionally, another interesting piece of information was at fifty two days the baby starts developing their retina, nose, and fingers. In all reality the embryo looks like a tiny human at the age of nine weeks inside of the mother’s stomach.

Some aspects of the film were very similar between the four cultures. Many of these aspects would be traditionally associated with nature. The babies seemed to hit physical developmental milestones at very similar ages. They started sitting up, crawling, and eating foods at very similar times, at least as far as the film portrayed it. They even seemed to be showing some social milestones at similar times, such as making eye contact and using syllables that the caregivers seemed to understand or at least respond.

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

Among the four families in the documentary, “Babies”, there were only some similarities but many differences. There were only a few similarities that I could recognize. One of them was between the Japanese baby, Mari, and the American baby, Hattie. They both participated in a mother and baby class, which involved interacting with others. Another similarity between these two babies is that both of their families got together at least once during the documentary to enjoy a home cooked meal and with conversation amongst each other. Surprisingly, those were only the main similarities I noticed throughout the documentary. In contrast, I did notice many differences among these families of different cultures and societies. One difference was that the baby from Africa, Ponijao, never wore a diaper. When she had to go to the bathroom she would freely go and the excess would be rubbed off on her mother’s knee. While on the other hand, the American baby, Hattie,

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.

“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.

Within many different cultures, there are a multitude of views on what is the best way to raise a child. Within the documentary, “Babies,” four different cultures were examined in order to provide a better understanding into different child rearing practices. From Africa, Ponijao grew up in a tribe based home with many children and seemed to be his mother’s responsibility. From Mongolia, Bayar spent a majority of his infancy alone, learning to self sooth and entertain himself. From Japan, Mari grew up in a bustling city with her mother nearly always by her side.

The way the Babies documentary is structured is very interesting. Although this film doesn’t really give you babies insight on the world in an hour and half. It’s a documentary that brings forth four different countries, four different families, four different babies and four different cultures. They all have one common thing with them and that’s the topic of babies & their developmental progression. In the documentary I noticed the different stages of development that occurred.

One thing we don’t see in the film about the lives of the baby is their developmental stages. We don’t see when the babies in the different countries crawl, walk, and talk. The film somewhat portrayed the baby accomplishments but we don’t know at what point each baby started to do these things.The

Research on human development has been much devoted towards determining when one should expect children to be capable of certain skills. Every day, our communities develop as generations of individuals make choices and invent solutions to changing circumstances. Our ongoing daily activities, ranging from learning when to brush our teeth, to learning the numbers on a telephone. Barbara Rogoff’s The Cultural Nature of Human Development discusses cultural patterns as they relate to human development. Human development is a cultural process by which devices such as language and literacy are employed by means of learning from one another. To date, the study of human development has been largely based around research and theoretical knowledge coming from middle-class communities in Europe, as well as North America. Questions such as “When does children’s intellectual development permit them to be responsible for others?” and “When can they be trusted to take care of an infant?” are vital in recognizing cultural approaches among different cultural communities. Rogoff’s work discusses the importance of increasing the understanding of the cultural basis of our own lives as those of our neighbors and those individuals we do not know personally.