Montaigne Of Cannibals

Michel de Montaigne, a famous French essayist, explores what it means for the Europeans when they come into contact with the New World. Montaigne contradicts what is commonly thought about contact with the New World by mirroring it back on sixteenth century Europeans and their way of life. He also inverts the selfish European conviction in the supremacy and superiority of Western culture. Montaigne recognizes that unlike the stereotypes cannibals are known for, they instead live in harmony with nature, utilize useful and worthy skills and take pleasure in ideal religious life and governmental system. They are not simple, ill-mannered or barbarous like some are continuously adamant about. Montaigne suggests that it is not the cannibals,
He instead makes a more provocative claim stating that even as barbaric as these Brazilian cannibals may be, they do not compare to the barbaric ways of sixteenth century Europeans themselves. Montaigne states, “so we may well call these people barbarians, in respect to the rules of reason, but not in respect to ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarity,” meaning that even though they are called barbarians because of the rules of reason, in no way do they amount to the savagery of European settlers (359). Montaigne goes on to give examples of the different forms of punishment performed by the Brazilian cannibals and by sixteenth century Europeans. He does not justify what the cannibals do, but he declares that it’s not as bad as what the Europeans do; Europeans feed people, who are still alive, to dog and pigs whereas Brazilians eat people when they are
In the minds of many people, life is a competition and seeing who can be the one who comes out on top. If there is something different in other people they are considered weird, strange, and especially barbaric. In Montaigne’s essays “Of Cannibals” and “Of Coaches,” he reflects on who the barbarian was really and how it changes his perception of the civilizational tradition he belongs to. Contact with the people of the New World means damage and demolition for the Europeans, and makes you think about the culture you are connected to. In the end, Montaigne does not justify the actions of cannibals or the actions of the Europeans; he simply looks at all the factors and makes his own conclusions of the past. Ultimately, we always “fall back to our coaches”