The documentary begins with Ponijao, a young infant raised in Opuwo, Namibia. Viewers are introduced to a very natural environment with limited resources. The village of the Himba tribe, the community she is raised within and the cultural customs she will become accustomed to, is located in a very rocky and dusty geographical location. Babies are born in their hut in which they live. From the very beginning of the film, the concept of guided participation was demonstrated between two Namibian infants mimicking a traditional cultural activity, as the older peer is seen using a rock to perform a hitting and rubbing action on a larger rock while the younger infant observes and imitates her more skilled peers actions. It is then shown the mother, who is also using a rock to break down a red powder carrying out the same motion previously seen by the younger infants. This red ochre is culturally used to distinguish between men and women and also used to bathe (Coussement, R., 205). This demonstrates that at a young age, these babies are able to interact with a tool that will provide cultural knowledge to later assist them in specific cultural activity. Next, we are introduced to Bayar, an infant from Mongolia. Similar to the physical characteristics of Ponijaos environment that is open and natural, there is lots of barren, hilly land as well as livestock animals such as cows and goats surrounding the yurts where the individuals of this culture live. The audien
ce is then introduced to the next two infants, Mari from Tokyo and Hattie from California, both babies who are raised in large, busy, industrialized cities where the culture is more Western.
One development that was documented throughout the movie is the babys gross motor skills. These skills develop universally among infants however there seemed to be differences between cultures in the way this physical development occurred. Bayar was brought home tightly swaddled as a newborn and remained swaddled for most of his infancy. Swaddling is a traditional practice in Mongolian culture during the colder seasons where babies are kept tightly wrapped for the first six months after birth (Tsgot et al., 206). Once mobility is increased after the first three months, the intensity and duration of wrapping are gradually decreased. Consequently, although Bayer developed the skill to walk, compared to the other three babies, Bayer found the development of gross motor skills more challenging and took the most time to develop. Unlike Ponijao, she was never swaddled as a newborn, instead, spending the majority of her first few months in her mothers arms or lap. Ponijao was given much more freedom to be mobile at a much earlier time than Bayer, crawling around with other infants in their community once she was able to. Ponijaos ability to learn gross motor skills (sitting up, crawling, walking) was at a faster rate than the other three babies, with much less of a struggle.