Watch the documentary entitled, “BABIES” (Link: https://www.amazon.com/Babies-Bayar/dp/B003WKLOTQ ) As you watch it, please take notes of each of the questions below, then type up a paper using complete sentences in paragraph form (at least 3 pages, double-spaced).
Formatting: You may use a paragraph heading of the baby/culture and then respond to each of the questions, or you can organize your paper with each question as your paragraph heading and the content will be your response regarding each baby/culture about that issue. Note: Ethnocentrism is an attitude of cultural superiority. It means we value our own culture above others to the point that we condemn practices and social behaviors of foreign cultures. We think they are wrong when they are only different. Keep this in mind as you watch this movie. Remember that each family does not represent all parenting styles of his/her culture. The family from San Francisco or Japan does not represent all families from the U.S. or Japan. Also, remember that we all have similar goals in parenting but circumstances and cultures can be so diverse that we have different ways of accomplishing the same things. Furthermore, you might find that each baby is treated precisely how his/her environment demands; in other words, each baby is allowed to learn survival skills in the very specific world in which they will grow up. However, withholding cultural judgment shouldn’t preclude us from exercising critical evaluations on the specific good and not-as-good parenting practices we observe. Please respond to these questions: In the 4 cultures shown, what did you observe in each?
1. Prenatal/Birth/Postnatal rituals or medical practices 2. Feeding 3. Parent-child attachment and responsiveness 4.Hygiene and grooming practices 5. Play and toys 6. How mothers carry/travel with their babies 7. Interactions with siblings and pets/animals 8. Exploring their surroundings 9. What specific cultural parenting practices were different from one another and what were similar? 10. What insights did you gain from watching this movie? Where there any good and not-so-good parenting practices you observed?
