Babies Movie Analysis

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The Context of Cultural and Environmental Differences Babies is a documentary that offers us a up-close-and-personal look of four babies from different cultures in their first year of life. Ponijao, from Opuwo, Namibia; Bayarjargal, from Mongolia; Mari from Tokyo, Japan; and Hattie from San Francisco in the United States. Although each child has different personalities, different genres and different standard ways of life, they all follow the same pattern of developmental progress in comparatively the same time frame. They start out as these feeble beings, totally dependent on the care of their mothers for everything they need to survive. As the cycle of life continues, we see how they are all not very different, despite their upbringing.…show more content…
Mari crawls among the high-rises of Tokyo where there is little dirt, grass, or tree to be found. Differing Ponijao's coordination development of balancing a can on her head as she walks, Mari's frustration comes as she struggles to pass a small, wooden rod onto a hole in a disc. In another scene, and contrary to Bayarjargai's obliviousness to the possible danger of animals, and Mari is scared of caged animals at the zoo. Hattie, in San Francisco, on the other hand, is being parented by two upper-middle class Americans and is being coaxed into enjoying the benefits of a back yard Jacuzzi in contrast to Ponijao who is having a great mud-bath in a nearby mud puddle. She, similar to Mari in Japan, engage in more structured play like "baby yoga" classes and has play dates in the park. Her parents are focused on reading books and singing songs of modern day social relevance, paying tribute to our "mother earth," whereas the babies in Africa and Mongolia experience the pre-industrial fruits of "mother earth" every…show more content…
They talked to their babies in a soothing voice, sang to them, smiled at them, held them, and enjoyed just being with their babies. They all encouraged their children to try again if they failed at something they were attempting to do. As the babies grew, most of the mother's used redirection as their form of discipline, with the exception of the Mongolian mother. She spoke in a more firm voice and also swatted her toddler's bottom though it was obvious that it wasn't intended to hurt, but to get the babies
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