MH : Do the babies then still whine and cry?
JN : Hardly at all, no. There’s always human contact. All their needs are being met. They’re constantly on the boob. They just need the warmth.
Michelle Henning, dans son Blog « Mama Hub », publie une très intéressante conversation avec le photographe Jimmy Nelson, autour de son extraordinaire livre « Before They Pass Away » :
« Parenting lessons from tribes around the world - a
conversation with photographer Jimmy Nelson »
Nous souhaitons, avec l’autorisation de Michelle Henning, en publier ici quelques extraits.
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Jimmy Nelson : […]These tribes are some of the world’s last traditional cultures.
[…] Once you make pretty pictures, people go, “What pretty pictures”! Then they look beyond the pretty pictures and go, “Wow, who are the pictures of? Aren’t they amazing? Who is this?” They start asking questions which we’ve not asked before. And if we don’t find answers soon, these people will go.
If that happens, the world will go upside-down, because these tribes give us the balance of culture, of knowledge of the world’s last natural environments, traditions, languages. The world can’t be all about progress and material wealth. It must also be about consolidation of what we already have, which is a natural, spiritual, mental, cultural wealth. We’ve kept ourselves busy for many, many generations, believing material wealth was the only way forward. We have to regain that balance. That’s all the book is about - it’s about putting these tribes on a pedestal, to start that discussion.
[…]
Michelle Henning : Regarding health, how do the tribes look after themselves? They don’t have access to medicine like we do.
Jimmy Nelson : It’s a survival of the fittest. If you’re not healthy when you’re born, you die; as harsh and simple as that. Those who are born healthy, functioning, they live, and they live a healthy life.
A lot of the illnesses we suffer from here are self-inflicted. They’re self-inflicted from food, sugars, salts, all the synthetic aspects. They’re self-inflicted through the lifestyle we lead. We believe we have to live for happiness. None of these people have the term “happiness”, because they don’t worry about the future, or when they’re going to be happy. They just are.
[…]
MH : I’m particularly interested in their child rearing practices. Here, everybody talks about routine, about sleep training, about when to give solid foods. In the tribes, did you see any small infants being fed solid food?
JN : No, they’re all fed by the breast. They feed them until they’re 4 or 5 years old.
MH : Really, that old?
JN : Why not? It’s 10 times healthier, coming out of your breast, because it’s clean. It builds their whole immune system. And there’s no structure to it. It’s just when they’re hungry, they eat. There’s none of this, “They should eat, they shouldn’t eat, it’s now bedtime, we’re going to have to wean them off.” All these communities, the best food comes out of your breasts.
MH : So the babies are constantly on the mothers?
JN : Yes, they’re never left alone. If the parents are working, the other brothers and sisters carry the babies. They’re always sleeping between the parents, or the brothers and sisters, and from when the day begins, they’re attached to another human being. Everywhere you go, that is a common denominator. Obviously, in the colder climates, they do that for warmth, but even in the warm climates.
MH : Do the babies then still whine and cry?
JN : Hardly at all, no. There’s always human contact. All their needs are being met. They’re constantly on the boob. They just need the warmth.
MH : And during the night, do they wake a lot, nursing?
JN : You never hear that they’re awake. They nurse all night, so they sleep like my children were brought up, next to their mother. If they’re hungry, they get something. There’s never any process of screaming or yelling.
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