Essay: Of Cannibals

Overview
Michel de Montaigne’s 1580 essay "Of Cannibals" probes European assumptions about civility and savagery by juxtaposing the lives of Brazilian Tupinambá with the violence and artifice of his own society. He argues that the label "barbarous" reflects habit and prejudice more than truth, remarking that "every man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice". What Europeans deem savage, he suggests, may be nearer to nature, reason, and virtue than the corrupt refinements of Europe.

Sources and Perspective
Montaigne grounds his reflections in reports from travelers and, notably, in conversations with three Brazilians brought to Rouen. He treats their testimony as correctives to hearsay, filtering it through a classical lens shaped by Plutarch and Plato. This blend of eyewitness account, skeptical method, and antique example allows him to test European judgments against both experience and ancient authority.

Customs and Social Order
His portrait of the Tupinambá emphasizes simplicity and communal integrity. They live without letters, money, or commerce; property is shared; leaders are chosen for valor and counsel rather than lineage; and their education hardens body and spirit for war. They prize frank speech and courage, sing of their battles, and raise children to endure hardship. Polygamy exists, but women hold honor in social ceremonies and lamentations. War is frequent, yet ritualized; enemies are challenged openly rather than deceived by ambush or treachery.

The Meaning of Cannibalism
Cannibalism appears as the most striking custom yet is framed as symbolic vengeance, not gluttony. Captives are fed and treated well until a solemn execution, after which the victors eat portions of the body to internalize the enemy’s courage and exact retaliatory justice. Montaigne contrasts this with European practices, judicial torture, religious persecutions, massacres in civil wars, concluding that refined cruelty, done under color of law or piety, is more monstrous than ritual cannibalism. What shocks Europeans, he suggests, is the nakedness of the act, not its moral weight relative to their own atrocities.

Nature versus Artifice
The essay advances a sustained defense of nature’s measure over human contrivance. Montaigne praises the "natural" order of these peoples, their diet, physique, and unadorned customs, and cautions that European arts often corrupt more than perfect. By pruning away excess and comparing like with like, he argues that simplicity can preserve integrity where refinement breeds vice. This is not a naive idealization; he admits their warfare and harshness. Yet he insists that judgment should aim at proportion: a people without avarice, lying, or servile dependence may surpass those who torture for doctrine and hoard wealth.

A Reversal of the Gaze
The most pointed moment comes when the Brazilians assess France. They marvel that bearded men obey a child-king, that the poor starve outside the doors of the rich, and that inequality coexists with opulence. Their questions expose European contradictions more sharply than any sermon. By letting them judge us, Montaigne flips the ethnographic mirror and shows that barbarism is largely a matter of perspective.

Style and Significance
Through digression, anecdote, and classical comparison, Montaigne pioneers a humane skepticism that dissolves arrogance into curiosity. "Of Cannibals" seeds modern cultural relativism and the critique of Eurocentrism, not by denying moral judgment but by relocating it in humility, proportion, and attention to lived practice. The essay’s enduring force lies in its quiet scandal: that the true savages may be those who congratulate themselves on their civility.