The Documentary ' Babies '

Once babies are grown in test tubes, there would be no need for parents and therefore vanish the incredible bond between the mother, father, and child. The childhood of a child that was grown in a test tube would be completely unconventional, since that child would not have loving parents to teach them anything. Adults raised this way would grow up to be unusual as a result of not knowing what love is since people first know about love because of the love between them and their parents. The adults grown from test tubes would most likely be independent and isolated from the rest of the world because they would not have created a bond with anyone or even interacted with anyone as a child.

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

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.

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

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 (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.

One of the main features of childhood studies is the idea that childhood is socially constructed. This means that not all childhoods are the same and that it may differ depending on the time in which it is taking place, as well as the social environment or the place that it is taking place. This can be seen at the Museum of Childhood, and how different times have shown changes in the way children act, play, dress, or ultimately are treated in society. Additionally it draws on key differences in the human societies affecting different childhoods in any given period or place, and can examine how the childhood in that given period is constructed. Furthermore a social constructionist looks at the consequences of any given factor and the impact it has on children.

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.

Laura Schulz’s presentation, The Surprisingly Logical Minds of Babies, explores the idea of how babies and young children are able to learn so much in such a short span of time. In Schulz’s presentation, the viewers see multiple video experiments where she introduces babies to different balls and toys that make noises. I choose to explain and break down the first experiment, that she discusses. In the first experiment Schulz has a colleague reach into a bucket with mostly blue balls and a few yellow balls. The colleague pulls out three of the balls and when she takes each ball out she squeaks them. The colleague then pulls out a yellow ball and hands it to the baby. The child copies what Schulz’s colleague has done, but however the

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.

“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.

At a certain age infants begin to resist the unfamiliar and are very vocal in expressing their feelings (Brazelton, 1992).

I wasn’t to surprise with how the African mothers childbearing practice. I watched plenty of different shows on the history channel and have seen these practices being done before. One thing in the film that surprised me was how similar the baby was raised in Japan and America. One thing that surprised me was how the father figure was not present in the upbringing of the baby in Africa. The mother and the women of the community helped raise the baby.