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By whom should children be raised?

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By parents, most would say, but the answer isn’t always that simple

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and it varies from culture to culture.

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What one group sees as the ideal way to raise a child may be another’s taboo.

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Meredith Small: Every culture believes that what they’re doing is the perfect thing for children.

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Narrator: Meredith Small is a professor of anthropology at Cornell University.

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Small: It’s only when we step back and look at the other cultures that we can actually

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look at our own cultures and see how different it is.

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Narrator: A few years before China will host its first Olympic games, the people of its capital,

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Beijing, are feeling the pressure.

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For many in China, and especially its Communist leaders,

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the 2008 games will be the most important ever.

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In fact, China’s quest for gold means some children are growing up under circumstances

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many might find taboo.

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It’s a common scene—a family sharing a meal at home.

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For ten-year-old Li Yang, however, this is no longer home.

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And meals with his parents are rare, because Li Yang only comes here on weekends.

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He’s an aspiring gymnast and he’s being raised not by his mom and dad, but by the state.

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When he was just a toddler, the state-run sports system selected him for training.

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Father: He was three-and-a-half years old when he was chosen out of pre-school.

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His pre-school had 500 students and they chose two.

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Narrator: Then, Li Yang’s coaches gave his parents a very difficult choice:

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They could set their only child on course to become a professional gymnast,

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but there would be a price.

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At the tender age of six, Li Yang would have to leave his family’s loving care to live at

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a state-run boarding school where he would undergo years of grueling training,

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involving pain, tears, and the risk of physical injury.

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Narrator: Many parents might find that price too high, particularly in China.

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The country’s “one child” policy meant that Li Yang’s parents would be giving up

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the only child they would ever have, but Li Yang’s father was eager for his son to go.

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Father: I didn’t have any doubts.

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Of course I wanted to send him there.

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I hope he will be the world champion.

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Narrator: For aspiring gymnasts, there is no better training ground than the

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Shi Cha Hai sports school in Beijing.

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Shi Cha Hai graduates often go on to China’s national gymnastics team, one of the world’s best.

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But when Li Yang first enrolled, he was just six, far too young to understand what was at stake.

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Li Yang: When they picked me, I didn’t know anything, so I didn’t think much about it.

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Now after I’ve learned some, I think that learning gymnastics is pretty good.

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Narrator: It may be great training, but it comes at the cost of a traditional childhood.

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Playtime is replaced by grueling workouts.

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Susan Brownell: Parents recognize that the sports school life is what they call bitter.

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They recognize that these athletes have to endure a lot of physical fatigue and pain.

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Narrator: Susan Brownell is an associate professor of anthropology at

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the University of Missouri St. Louis.

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Brownell: The parents, probably in most cases, hope that the child will become a star,

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will make an Olympic team, win a gold medal, win glory for China.

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Narrator: From the start, the lives of these budding Chinese sports stars are far removed

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from the comforts of home.

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Every morning, each child is awoken at six a.m., and not by his mother.

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Woman: Listen up, Li yang, you count.

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Li Yang: Okay, one, two…

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Narrator: Even before breakfast, the students begin their training with a run.

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It’s boot camp for six-year-olds.

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In a world without parents, it’s up to senior students like Li Yang, just 10 himself,

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to show the younger boys how to get by on their own.

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Meals always mean cafeteria food, not mom’s home cooking.

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Then, it’s time for school, but here too the children are paying a price.

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Li Yang has only half-a-day to spend in class.

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By noon, his school day is over.

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Then, while most kids his age are in their afternoon lessons, Li Yang reports to the gym

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for three hours of strenuous training.

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Li Yang is learning less than kids who spend all day in school, but the longer he trains,

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the less he can afford to give it up.

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Li Yang: I’ve trained for seven years already.

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If I stop now, then my efforts would be lost.

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Narrator: But in the end, all this may be for naught.

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After the years of training, the time spent away from his parents, Li Yang may not make it

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because, in fact, very few do.

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Brownell: Realistically, as you find anywhere in the world, including the U.S.,

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very few of the children actually make it to the top.

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And the rest may get some benefits out of having gone through this kind of process and

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some may actually come out of it worse than they would have if they had just

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pursued a normal life in the regular school system.

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Narrator: More and more in China, where the government insists most couples

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have just one child, fewer families are willing to take that risk.

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In fact, many people are starting to view the state-run sports schools as taboo.

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Man: It’s good to train the body, but it’s better when one obtains good grades.

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I don’t think there’s much future in that.

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They just do it for the country.

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Narrator: The athletes at the Shi Cha Hai sports school soon learn that training is

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excruciatingly hard work.

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Their coaches can be strict; they rarely offer praise.

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Coach: What, your butt doesn’t have any strength?

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What’s wrong, didn’t you eat enough? Why are you so slow?

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Narrator: Jiang Changzhu is the head gymnastics coach.

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Coach: To be a coach is very difficult.

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On one hand, we have to train them; and on the other hand, we have to take care of them.

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We’re more in contact with them than their parents.

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Narrator: But many parents might question this kind of care.

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To help the children increase their flexibility, the coaches teach them to stretch their

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backs and limbs beyond their natural limits.

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Even the five and six-year-olds are bent, crushed and pulled, sometimes until they cry.

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Coach: I guess I would say the ones who cry aren’t as flexible,

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which is a requirement of the sport.

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There’s no way to avoid it.

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Li Yang: You haven’t cried since you came here?

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Boy: I don’t believe that.

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Boy: I haven’t cried since I came here.

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Narrator: The school discourages parents from watching the training.

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But Li Yang’s father is not harboring any illusions.

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Father: It’s not bad for a child to face some hardship.

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Only after hardship can there be sweetness.

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Brownell: Parents really do not have much say in how the school operates.

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The coaches answer not to the parents, but to the administrators above them.

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It’s not like in the U.S., for example, where the coach is being paid by the parent

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to coach the athlete.

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Narrator: Every child must also face the daunting prospect that just one accident

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could result in a permanent physical injury or worse.

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Woman: All roads have danger.

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If you want to be an athlete, you have to be willing to sacrifice things for your life.

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Narrator: Coming up, a budding young gymnast competes at a world meet

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and suffers a tragic injury.

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And later, meet toddlers being raised in prison.

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Few understand the sacrifices gymnasts face better than Sang Lan.

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In the 1990s, Sang Lan represented China in competitions around the world.

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Then at the 1998 Goodwill Games in New York,

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she made a slight hesitation during a practice vault and landed on her head.

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She was 17.

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Sang Lan: I could tell that the injury was quite serious.

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Narrator: Today, Sang Lan has little feeling below her mid-chest.

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Sang Lan: But I really couldn’t imagine that I wouldn’t be able to walk in the future.

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I really couldn’t imagine it.

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Narrator: It’s a sobering reminder of how dangerous this path can be.

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In Sang Lan’s case, she was able to bounce back.

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A university student, about to launch her own TV sports show,

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she insists her gymnastics training gave her the fortitude to carry on despite her injury.

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Sang Lan: People will always have times when they feel regret.

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You may think if I hadn’t started training in gymnastics,

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then these things wouldn’t have happened.

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But I feel you can’t think of it that way.

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I still love gymnastics.

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Narrator: It’s a sentiment shared by other former gymnasts,

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even after their long years of bone crushing work.

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After graduating from Shi Cha Hai sports school, Kui Yuan Yuan went onto win

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a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics.

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Now retired at age 22, she has opened her own gymnastics school in Beijing.

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Kui Yuan Yuan: I think that after training in gymnastics, as I grew up,

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none of my difficulties were greater than the ones I faced in training.

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I think if I could get through that, then I could face anything.

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Narrator: Of course, there are many advantages to life as a young Chinese gymnast,

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in spite of the risks and hardships.

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Li Yang’s mother works 15-hour days, so she is not home to care for her son.

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Life at an athletic school provides supervision, as well as the companionship

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of other children, no small thing for a generation of only children raised

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under China’s one child policy.

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And twice a week in the evenings, parents can stop by and visit.

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Father: Did you finish your homework? Did you train well?

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Narrator: And although many Westerners may find it odd to give one’s children

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over to the care of strangers, it’s not so unusual in China.

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Brownell: There is a tradition in China of sending your children off to live with other people

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if you think other people can provide better opportunities.

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In America, we tend to think that families live together and being together all the time

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is one of the essential things about being a family.

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But in China, people are able to maintain very strong notions of family and

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a sense of emotional connectiveness even when they're apart.

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Narrator: Will Li Yang fulfill his dream and make the Olympic team?

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It’s too soon to tell.

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He and his parents have given up the daily joys of family life for the slim chance,

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the very slim chance, that Li Yang will become a star gymnast for China.

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The parents of young Chinese gymnasts like Li Yang are willing to let them

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be raised by coaches.

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But there are other places where the idea of having children raised by strangers

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of any kind would be taboo.

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There, the bond between mother and child is deemed so important that

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mothers will take their children with them even into the most hostile of environments.

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Tihar Prison in New Delhi, India.

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It's the largest prison in Asia; 75,000 prisoners shuffle through here every year.

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India's leading terrorists, criminals and drug lords are kept here.

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Even the women's ward is full of inmates charged with theft, drugs, and murder.

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It’s the last place a child should call home.

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Yet this is where about 50 children live, learn and play.

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They are the children of women prisoners. Some were born here.

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Others have lived here for months, even years.

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Nearly all of them have little memory of the world outside.

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Sapna: They don't see the moon because they're locked up.

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Lajjo: Ice cream, chocolate, you get that outside, but you can't get any of that in here.

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Narrator: A prison is never the ideal place to bring up a child, but sometimes,

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it can be the best place to do so.

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In some countries, the idea of making a child pay for the sins of its mother would be taboo.

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Man: I wouldn’t make the kid live there; that doesn’t seem right.

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The kid didn’t do anything wrong.

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Woman: They’re the ones that took the risk to get into prison;

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the child shouldn’t have to go down with them.

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She gives up every right and every freedom as soon as she gets convicted.

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Narrator: But here in India, people see it differently.

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The women's prison here in Tihar has eight wards housing 500 women.

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Tihar has been called a model prison: quiet, disciplined, orderly.

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But there's one building where the rules don't always apply.

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It’s called the children's barrack.

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And this is where the real outlaws live.

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Meet Rohit, the terror of Tihar.

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His mother, Lajjo, is struggling to keep him in control.

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Lajjo and Rohit have been in prison for over three years.

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Lajjo is charged with being an accessory to the murder of her sister-in-law.

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Lajjo's husband stayed in Dubai and she left her older daughters with her family,

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but Rohit she brought inside.

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Lajjo: He was a year and a half old when I brought him in. I was breastfeeding him.

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He couldn't have lived without me then.

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Narrator: But Rohit is now five years old, and Lajjo is still fighting her case.

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Like Lajjo, about 90% of the women inside Tihar are not convicts.

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They are women awaiting trial.

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The Indian courts are so clogged that it takes them years to grant bail or hear a case.

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So the law allows mothers to raise a child in prison until the child turns six.

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For most people, keeping kids in prison would be highly taboo.

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But many of these inmates opt to bring their children inside.

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Lajjo: We choose to bring them here if we aren't able to convince ourselves

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to leave the kids; we wonder how they'll keep our kids outside.

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The way a mother loves her child, nobody else can do that.

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A mother is, after all, a mother.

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Narrator: It’s a role most Indian women take to heart.

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And the one crime they don't want to be accused of is being an unfit mother.

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Dr. Manju Mehta: In Indian culture, in lots of our prayers,

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in lots of our sayings, the mother has a status which is almost next to god.

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So it’s become very important that the mother has to take care of the child.

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If anything goes wrong in the child, the blame is on the mother.

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Narrator: Dr. Manju Mehta is a child psychologist at the

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All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India.

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Dr. Mehta: In India, so far even culturally, the fathers have not been very active

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in bringing up children.

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And that is why the mother feels that she cannot leave the child to father or other relatives

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and she feels that whatever the environment is,

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she would be the best person to take care of her child.

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Narrator: In many countries, mothers aren’t given the choice.

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It’s not a question of what’s best for the child, just what’s the best punishment for the mother.

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Small: In Western culture, if a woman has to go to prison, she’s separated from her child

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as if the child will be perfectly fine without her.

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Someone else can bring the kid up.

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But I think from the Indian perspective, they consider this some kind of child abuse to separate

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this bond that is so important to them.

231
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And for Indian children who don’t follow their mothers to prison,

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the situation outside the prison walls can be more abusive than within.

233
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About 18 million children live on the streets of India trying to survive any way they can.

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Some resort to begging, others to drugs and prostitution.

235
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Many of the mothers in prison are from the poorer segments of society.

236
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They know that without their guidance, their kids could easily wander the alleyways.

237
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But in the confines of a prison, their children are safe and in their care.

238
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It’s Rohit's turn to lead the prayers at the prison nursery.

239
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The children are kept here while the mothers perform various prison duties.

240
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Inmates like Sapna act as nursery schoolteachers from nine to four every day.

241
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Sapna: They learn their alphabets, poems, numbers, all the things that are taught in a nursery.

242
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Narrator: Sapna's making them practice their alphabets.

243
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But Rohit's already thinking big.

244
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Sapna: My daughter says the same thing.

245
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She says, "I’ll become a judge…"

246
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That's my daughter, Mino.

247
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Narrator: Sapna's in prison on a kidnapping charge.

248
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Her husband is an alcoholic and cannot take care of Mino.

249
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So Sapna has brought her inside.

250
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Sapna: I think it’s better inside.

251
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These children don't care about the world.

252
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All they care about is having their mother, and good food to eat, that's it.

253
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Narrator: It’s in prison that the children learn to love their mothers.

254
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But it’s a lesson that will last them a lifetime.

255
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Dr. Mehta: In the initial ages, the mother-child relationship develops the sense of

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trust and mistrust in the child.

257
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So if the mother is able to take care of the child at that particular time,

258
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he would develop a sense of trust in other people also.

259
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But the children are paying a heavy price for this security.

260
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Coming up, Rohit leaves prison for the first time in three years.

261
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Then, journey to a place where kids run wild and learn to smoke at age six.

262
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The taboo of raising kids in prison stems from a harsher reality.

263
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Sapna: They don't see the moon, because they get locked up at six in the night.

264
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They’ve never been to the zoo.

265
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Inside, you just get to see cats, nothing else.

266
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Sapna: The kids who are from the outside would have seen other things.

267
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The kids born here, they have just seen the warden and these bars and us, that's it.

268
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Narrator: These children are limited, not just in their movement, but in their entire reality.

269
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A situation that may work for very young children becomes

270
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increasingly difficult as they get older.

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Dr. Mehta: When we look for the younger children,

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their basic needs are related to security, belongingness.

273
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But when we come to the older children, their needs are a little different.

274
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Their stimulation and their environment has to be more enriched.

275
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In the prison environment, their experiences become very limited.

276
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That sad reality has become increasingly clear to Lajjo, who worries about Rohit’s future.

277
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Lajjo: If he stays with me, I don't know how long it will take me to get released.

278
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And then the child's education gets affected.

279
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Narrator: After more than three years in prison,

280
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Lajjo has decided to send Rohit home to live with her daughters.

281
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Narrator: Although there are special hostels that look after prison kids,

282
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Lajjo is hesitant to entrust her son to total strangers.

283
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Lajjo: I would never give my son to anybody else.

284
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I am sending him only because it’s my own daughters.

285
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Narrator: It’s Rohit's big day and Lajjo is giving him his last prison bath in cold water.

286
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Lajjo: I am sending him home so he'll study, grow up and become a good human being.

287
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He says that we wants to study and become a big man.

288
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However far he may go from me, he’ll definitely remember his mother.

289
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Dr. Mehta: I wouldn't say that all the negative parts of the prison

290
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can be ruled out by the mother's love.

291
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But one has to make the compromise, because if the child is outside the prison,

292
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he doesn't have care of the mother.

293
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First, let the child's basic needs be fulfilled with the mother and

294
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when he is out of the prison, he can learn other things later in life.

295
00:27:47,233 --> 00:27:49,369
Narrator: It’s time for the final hand-off.

296
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At the meeting window, four feet of wire separates Lajjo from her family.

297
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Seeing them never gets any easier.

298
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Lajjo: When you get separated from your family, you feel terrible.

299
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It’s been three years since I left my kids; I really miss them.

300
00:28:14,336 --> 00:28:18,496
Narrator: And now, Lajjo is moments away from losing the last child she had.

301
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Lajjo: I brought him up since he was so small, so now I feel he's going far away from me.

302
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But he's going home after all.

303
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They'll take good care of him.

304
00:28:51,676 --> 00:28:53,786
They won't let him feel that his mother is not there.

305
00:28:56,793 --> 00:28:59,847
Narrator: There is just one more door that locks Rohit from the outside world.

306
00:29:04,525 --> 00:29:07,321
Lajjo's family waits eagerly in the sunlight.

307
00:29:08,764 --> 00:29:11,446
Rohit can hardly contain his excitement.

308
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After three years in prison, Rohit leaves Tihar, hopefully, never to return.

309
00:29:32,203 --> 00:29:34,775
Everything he has known and loved lies behind him.

310
00:29:36,866 --> 00:29:45,178
He has no idea what this new world is going to be like, but he is ready to take it all in stride.

311
00:29:48,447 --> 00:29:51,308
For Lajjo, prison has never seemed a bleaker place.

312
00:29:52,748 --> 00:29:58,413
Lajjo: I had dreamt a lot of things for him, but they brought and dumped me into this prison.

313
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Now I’ll keep him at home.

314
00:30:01,948 --> 00:30:04,558
I won't let this prison influence his life.

315
00:30:10,096 --> 00:30:12,941
Narrator: Inside the prison, it’s just another day.

316
00:30:16,893 --> 00:30:20,027
For now these children have their mothers to watch over them.

317
00:30:22,001 --> 00:30:24,204
Sapna: A child's future is in the mother's hand.

318
00:30:24,204 --> 00:30:26,666
If the mother is not there, then who will help them make their future?

319
00:30:27,546 --> 00:30:31,846
That's what every mother wants: her child to study, do well and become someone.

320
00:30:33,284 --> 00:30:36,754
That's a mother, only a mother does that.

321
00:30:38,874 --> 00:30:43,698
Narrator: And like every other mother, all these women want is what's best for their children.

322
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For the moment, they've found it in this prison.

323
00:30:54,636 --> 00:30:59,733
The mothers in Tihar Prison prefer to have their children grow up under their watchful eyes.

324
00:31:02,291 --> 00:31:06,898
And in today’s world, mothers everywhere worry about what can happen

325
00:31:07,556 --> 00:31:09,937
to children raised without enough supervision.

326
00:31:11,818 --> 00:31:18,520
But there are cultures where children are given an unusual amount of freedom and thrive on it.

327
00:31:29,584 --> 00:31:31,284
Would you let your children play with fire?

328
00:31:34,852 --> 00:31:37,276
Or smoke cigarettes at age six?

329
00:31:40,447 --> 00:31:45,023
Or go swimming in a nearby river without a parent or lifeguard in sight?

330
00:31:48,751 --> 00:31:54,156
How about if your kids wandered off on their own for hours or even days without coming home?

331
00:31:56,782 --> 00:32:01,360
If these were your kids, such behavior would probably be taboo.

332
00:32:01,807 --> 00:32:04,944
Woman: If my child were gone for several days without any contact,

333
00:32:04,944 --> 00:32:09,815
I would be calling the police, hunting the back woods, looking everywhere for that child.

334
00:32:10,154 --> 00:32:13,678
I totally disagree with a six-year-old being unsupervised doing anything

335
00:32:13,678 --> 00:32:15,253
let alone in a body of water.

336
00:32:15,590 --> 00:32:18,425
Man: Parents who let their six-year-old child smoke cigarettes

337
00:32:18,425 --> 00:32:20,175
should not be allowed to have children.

338
00:32:20,175 --> 00:32:24,162
Woman: If my six year-old was caught building fires, I’d probably beat his behind.

339
00:32:24,634 --> 00:32:29,650
I would never let my child go off six days, six minutes, six hours

340
00:32:29,650 --> 00:32:31,918
without me knowing what in the world is going on. Never.

341
00:32:31,918 --> 00:32:38,508
Narrator: But among the Mentawai people on Siberut Island in Indonesia,

342
00:32:38,508 --> 00:32:41,198
Western parenting rules don’t apply.

343
00:32:42,532 --> 00:32:47,499
In fact, parents aren’t even as important as in many cultures, because here,

344
00:32:47,499 --> 00:32:52,197
children are raised as much by relatives and each other as by their mothers and fathers.

345
00:32:58,964 --> 00:33:03,130
Goibiat is about seven or eight years old. Nobody knows for sure,

346
00:33:03,130 --> 00:33:05,055
since time is less important here.

347
00:33:07,097 --> 00:33:09,222
He lives with his extended family in the village of

348
00:33:09,222 --> 00:33:13,282
Sakuddei in a big house built on stilts to protect it from flooding.

349
00:33:15,187 --> 00:33:20,652
The house and the clan that lives in it, including grandparents, three aunts and five uncles

350
00:33:20,652 --> 00:33:25,186
is called an uma…in this case, “Uma Sakuddei.”

351
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:40,077
Among the Mentawai, the nuclear family is far less important than the clan

352
00:33:40,077 --> 00:33:43,252
usually five to ten families related on the father’s side.

353
00:33:47,987 --> 00:33:51,496
Children grow up with many adults to interact with

354
00:33:52,928 --> 00:33:56,333
or not, because kids here are given free rein.

355
00:33:59,281 --> 00:34:04,361
They may roll in the mud or spend hours hiking through a forest

356
00:34:04,361 --> 00:34:09,674
filled with dangerous wild animals, entirely on their own.

357
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Much of what Goibiat learns comes from imitating his cousin Kelak, who’s about 12.

358
00:34:21,731 --> 00:34:24,990
Small: Older kids teach younger kids.

359
00:34:24,990 --> 00:34:26,528
Adults don’t have to watch them.

360
00:34:26,528 --> 00:34:28,223
It really frees up adult time.

361
00:34:28,223 --> 00:34:31,774
This is probably the way the human evolutionary path started.

362
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Four million years ago, we lived in small kin-based clan groups, so it was always like that.

363
00:34:38,366 --> 00:34:42,693
At the uma, Goibiat’s life is a mixture of play and simple chores.

364
00:34:47,399 --> 00:34:51,847
My favorite things to do are canoeing and swimming in the river near uma.

365
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Then I go to the chicken farm to feed the chickens and then out to play again.

366
00:34:58,619 --> 00:35:02,279
When the boys get a little older, they’ll venture out for days at a time,

367
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welcomed into any home along the river.

368
00:35:09,991 --> 00:35:16,504
Here, miles from towns and cities, danger comes not from other people, but from wild animals.

369
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The latest harrowing attack dominates tonight’s storytelling.

370
00:35:23,699 --> 00:35:29,667
The clan gathers together as grandfather relates how he and the uncles battled a wild boar.

371
00:35:30,963 --> 00:35:35,733
Storyteller: A few hours out, we saw the wild boar, so Riaba tried to shoot it.

372
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That made the pig mad and it charged and attacked Siruruk and gored him with its tusk.

373
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Narrator: As they listen, family members change the wounded uncle’s bandages.

374
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Many parents elsewhere would shield children from his pain. Here, it’s accepted as a part of life.

375
00:36:01,221 --> 00:36:03,628
Uncle Ja Gao works on his arrows.

376
00:36:04,956 --> 00:36:08,987
He’s the family’s best hunter, the one who mortally wounded the wild boar.

377
00:36:11,278 --> 00:36:14,494
Storyteller: Ja Gao shot the pig with an arrow.

378
00:36:16,128 --> 00:36:17,698
We’d finally killed it.

379
00:36:17,698 --> 00:36:20,618
This was the biggest, strongest pig we had ever hunted.

380
00:36:21,026 --> 00:36:23,959
Maybe it had some magical strength that made it so hard to kill.

381
00:36:26,078 --> 00:36:30,390
Narrator: Adults don’t shield children from the spoils of hunting, either.

382
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Wild animal skulls hang from the rafters of the uma.

383
00:36:36,453 --> 00:36:39,098
Western children might call it a haunted house.

384
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But here, youngsters learn that animal spirits serve their ancestors,

385
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which in turn protect the family.

386
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The next morning, it’s the boys’ turn to go hunting with the uncles,

387
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time to continue their lessons.

388
00:37:01,823 --> 00:37:05,454
In this society, relatives provide much of a child’s education.

389
00:37:07,700 --> 00:37:11,049
Uncles Ja Gao and Gabari are uniquely qualified.

390
00:37:13,764 --> 00:37:19,102
They’re shamans, among the society’s elite who can communicate with the spirit world.

391
00:37:20,878 --> 00:37:27,091
Today their prey is a lot less ferocious than wild boar: plants.

392
00:37:32,505 --> 00:37:34,990
The young boys wield sharp machetes.

393
00:37:35,497 --> 00:37:39,676
They’re lethal weapons, but no one seems to worry that they’re in the hands of children.

394
00:37:41,050 --> 00:37:45,229
But like boys everywhere, Goibiat and Kelak aren’t just thinking about their lessons.

395
00:37:49,694 --> 00:37:56,219
They’ve managed to uncover what passes for candy in this part of the world,

396
00:37:56,594 --> 00:38:00,903
sago grubs, the larvae of the Capricorn beetle.

397
00:38:02,057 --> 00:38:07,422
To Goibiat, as delicious as a chocolate bar, but just a bit more wriggly.

398
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The uncles pick up their pace.

399
00:38:12,592 --> 00:38:15,056
Tonight will be an important night in the uma.

400
00:38:17,633 --> 00:38:20,826
A man sick with fever has arrived from a neighboring clan.

401
00:38:23,862 --> 00:38:27,759
The shamans know exactly which plants to choose for the healing ceremony.

402
00:38:28,362 --> 00:38:29,965
That’s why they brought the boys along.

403
00:38:33,533 --> 00:38:37,026
Mentawai shamans are entrusted with passing on their knowledge

404
00:38:37,026 --> 00:38:40,596
of as many as a thousand plants in this tropical forest.

405
00:38:43,133 --> 00:38:50,020
Someday Goibiat too could be a shaman, if he watches closely and learns their secrets.

406
00:38:55,562 --> 00:38:59,653
Coming up: The shamans try to placate angry spirits.

407
00:39:04,053 --> 00:39:07,681
Goibiat’s education continues that night in the uma.

408
00:39:08,327 --> 00:39:11,925
The children’s presence is accepted at the healing ceremony.

409
00:39:13,996 --> 00:39:15,506
Nothing here is censored.

410
00:39:18,096 --> 00:39:22,701
Once in a trance, the shaman’s goal is to placate angry spirits,

411
00:39:23,735 --> 00:39:26,731
whom they hold responsible for illness and suffering.

412
00:39:30,703 --> 00:39:33,128
The children stay up late into the night.

413
00:39:34,788 --> 00:39:39,451
There are no scoldings, no worries about getting enough sleep.

414
00:39:42,020 --> 00:39:44,966
They’re not excluded, they learn first-hand.

415
00:39:48,249 --> 00:39:51,735
Ceremonies like this are at the heart of uma life,

416
00:39:51,735 --> 00:39:56,855
in a culture struggling to hold on to its traditions despite constant pressure from the outside.

417
00:40:01,629 --> 00:40:05,788
For Goibiat’s way of life is beset by change.

418
00:40:07,703 --> 00:40:10,669
He has grown up a free spirit in an extended family,

419
00:40:10,669 --> 00:40:13,696
taking his lessons from the forest around him.

420
00:40:17,389 --> 00:40:21,835
Yet at the same time, the Indonesian government has long urged his people

421
00:40:21,835 --> 00:40:26,543
to live as nuclear families in villages where children can attend school.

422
00:40:29,131 --> 00:40:32,129
These changes have had mixed results for Goibiat.

423
00:40:34,021 --> 00:40:37,795
His parents are now building a second home in a village with a school,

424
00:40:37,795 --> 00:40:39,901
half-an-hour downstream from the uma.

425
00:40:42,667 --> 00:40:48,188
Goibiat’s father, Gulakeu, has decided it’s time to give his son a more formal education.

426
00:40:51,049 --> 00:40:55,367
Aman Gulakeu: I want Goibiat to go to school and learn to write and to speak Indonesian.

427
00:40:57,126 --> 00:41:00,495
I want him to be smart and then help with the family business.

428
00:41:01,556 --> 00:41:05,614
If I have dried coconut, he can deal with the trader.

429
00:41:08,224 --> 00:41:11,281
Narrator: Traders are increasingly important to the Mentawai.

430
00:41:12,096 --> 00:41:14,937
They bring them tobacco, to which they are addicted.

431
00:41:16,329 --> 00:41:21,770
But though Gulakeu has high hopes for his son, the boy sees little relevance in his schoolwork.

432
00:41:23,993 --> 00:41:28,167
His heart remains back at the uma, where he’s used to a different way of learning.

433
00:41:33,700 --> 00:41:36,604
Goibiat’s lack of interest worries his teacher.

434
00:41:39,829 --> 00:41:43,888
Teacher: Every single time I see him, he goes to school without his book, pen,

435
00:41:43,888 --> 00:41:47,702
and most of the time he just listens and watches.

436
00:41:50,364 --> 00:41:53,904
He often doesn’t even go to school because his parents take him to the jungle

437
00:41:53,904 --> 00:41:55,990
or to the uma to work in the forest.

438
00:42:02,191 --> 00:42:06,054
Narrator: In Western culture, it’s considered taboo to let your child cut school.

439
00:42:09,296 --> 00:42:13,699
But to Goibiat’s father, the old ways of learning still outrank the new.

440
00:42:16,965 --> 00:42:19,959
Gulakeu: I would like him to stay in school for two or three years,

441
00:42:19,959 --> 00:42:22,965
but after he’s finished, I will teach him the Mentawai way.

442
00:42:26,190 --> 00:42:31,285
I was taught these things by my parents, and now it’s my turn to teach Goibiat.

443
00:42:32,626 --> 00:42:36,424
He will learn from me and then when he grows up he can continue the tradition

444
00:42:36,424 --> 00:42:38,164
by teaching the next generation.

445
00:42:42,793 --> 00:42:46,612
Narrator: In America, parents celebrate taking their children to work one day a year.

446
00:42:49,095 --> 00:42:52,965
But what Mommy and Daddy do all day isn’t a mystery to Mentawai children.

447
00:42:55,460 --> 00:42:58,998
From an early age, they’re initiated into what it takes to make a living.

448
00:43:01,224 --> 00:43:03,857
Small: Children are part of the work force.

449
00:43:03,857 --> 00:43:05,567
They’re a part of what’s going on.

450
00:43:05,567 --> 00:43:08,654
They’re in the fields; they’re running around.

451
00:43:08,654 --> 00:43:14,594
In America, you can go through day after day and not see a single child.

452
00:43:17,834 --> 00:43:22,029
Narrator: In teaching his son, Gulakeu emphasizes practical skills.

453
00:43:24,529 --> 00:43:26,739
Gulakeu: I teach him to walk in the jungle.

454
00:43:26,739 --> 00:43:31,194
We have to be quiet when we see a monkey, so I teach him strategies for hunting.

455
00:43:35,023 --> 00:43:39,096
And then I teach him to find the good wood to build a house in the future when he needs it.

456
00:43:39,707 --> 00:43:42,427
Also some rattan to make a string for the bow.

457
00:43:47,934 --> 00:43:51,956
The things that I teach him now, to feed the pig, to go to the river,

458
00:43:51,956 --> 00:43:54,226
it’s going to be his duty in the future.

459
00:44:01,614 --> 00:44:04,701
It’s already evident the boys are learning their lessons well.

460
00:44:07,595 --> 00:44:16,095
Cutting school may be taboo elsewhere, but Goibiat uses the time to perfect his survival skills.

461
00:44:19,794 --> 00:44:24,499
Who’s to argue; in less than a decade, he may well have a family to feed.

462
00:44:28,260 --> 00:44:29,967
But he won’t lose sleep over it.

463
00:44:33,394 --> 00:44:36,461
For the Mentawai believe in taking life slow.

464
00:44:40,508 --> 00:44:47,829
The spirits disapprove of rushing around, so there’s always time, for the children.

465
00:44:53,455 --> 00:44:56,336
Time to make certain they learn the traditions of the clan,

466
00:45:01,455 --> 00:45:04,702
to prepare them to take their places as Mentawai adults

467
00:45:10,057 --> 00:45:13,907
and pass on the culture to the next generation.

468
00:45:21,023 --> 00:45:23,231
Small: The tightness or the looseness of the bond between

469
00:45:23,231 --> 00:45:26,857
a mother and an infant and what is expected or what is acceptable in a society

470
00:45:26,857 --> 00:45:30,562
is actually a picture of the society as a whole.

471
00:45:30,562 --> 00:45:34,297
How do they feel about relationships how do they feel about family,

472
00:45:34,297 --> 00:45:35,855
how do they feel about work?

473
00:45:35,855 --> 00:45:38,699
It’s all part of the ideology of a culture.

474
00:45:39,289 --> 00:45:42,929
Narrator: What one culture considers proper another considers taboo.

475
00:45:44,657 --> 00:45:49,827
From the freedom of the Mentawai children, to the tight bond of mothers and children

476
00:45:49,827 --> 00:45:55,286
in Indian prisons, to the challenging life of the young Chinese gymnast,

477
00:45:55,768 --> 00:45:59,972
our choices in child rearing say a great deal about who we are.

478
00:46:01,225 --> 00:46:04,703
What parenting style is taboo for you?