On The Cannibals, By Michel De Montaigne

When describing native Brazilian people in his 1580 essay, “Of Cannibals,” Michel de Montaigne states, “Truly here are real savages by our standards; for either they must be thoroughly so, or we must be; there is an amazing distance between their character and ours” (158). Montaigne doesn’t always maintain this “amazing” distance, however, between savages and non-savages or between Brazilians and Europeans; he first portrays Brazilians as non-barbaric people who are not like Europeans, then as non-barbarians who best embody traditional European values, and finally as barbarians who are diametrically opposed to Europeans.

Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches by Marvin Harris divulges into some difference and components of culture around the world. He answers question as to why individuals perform and act the way they do in relation to culture. He looks at sexual hierarchies among Yanomamo culture as well as the Hindu’s respect for cows in India.

"European opinion ran the gamut from admiration to contempt; for example, some European poets and painters expressed admiration for the Noble Savage, while other Europeans accepted as a rationalization for military aggression the sentiment that “the only good savage is a dead one.”" (Text p. 184) It was very

In the early 16 century, Europeans learned about Natives in the Americas through images depicted by early conquerors. Fortunately, we have several first-hand account by a settler who depicts them in paintings by the name of John White. While these accounts have their limitations in terms of accuracy, it is apparent that Europeans tended to view the indigenous peoples as lacking morality but in my opinion John White proves all the speculation wrong.

Throughout the 13th century, the Mongols showed the world how barbaric they actually were. To other groups of people, they were known as cruel, very violent, barbaric and people who definitely lived far from what was considered as a “civilized world.” People thought of barbaric as a negative term referring to people who lived beyond the reach of civilization, people who were savage, evil according to the background essay. The Mongols could be expressed as one of the most barbaric groups out there because they revealed their violence by causing death, destruction, and the downfall of all the land that they had conquered.

Not long after this long and bloody battle, the British began exploring the New World. While exploring the Americas, the English came across the natives of these new lands. They began to notice what they believed were similarities between the Irish and these Native Americans. According to Ronald Takaki, “Initially, ‘savagery’ was defined in relationship to the Irish and the Indians were incorporated into this definition” (31). They began to deem anything that they saw unfit in their new society as ‘savage.’

In the book entitled Cannibals All! Or, Slaves Without Masters, Fitzhugh speaks out to abolitionists in Virginia during 1857. His audience is anti-slavery group and wants slavery to end and think black laborers are being treated horribly and it negatively impacts the lives of slaves. However, Fitzhugh argues pro slavery grants power to move from defending slavery as an essential evil too a positive good. Therefore, Fitzhugh speaks about “In such countries the poor need protection. But there can be no efficient protection without enslavement” (L. 11-13). Fitzhugh uses subjective writing to suggest his audience that black laborers tend to live a more convenient life enslaved, he implies his personal thought because his perspective is that black

Perhaps the first people one thinks of on hearing ”Renaissance Europe,” is Shakespeare or Michelangelo. Yet those well known figures who have not been lost as the wheel of time grinds forth, and who still have a great impact in the artistic world today should not be considered the only people of importance from the Renaissance. There are other figures from this time frame who have greatly impacted the European mindset during the Renaissance, breeding in the people of Europe a sort of blooming respect for other cultures. During this time period, Europe was thriving with people from every corner of the globe; people trying to survive and make a name for themselves. Indeed, one of the most notable racial presences was that of the Black African. The treatment of these peoples within European society reflects the thought systems of white Europeans at the time, a thought system which is, unexpectedly, one of more respect than not. It is undeniable that the idea of white privilege and superiority affected the mindsets of white Europeans, but there was a sort of exoticism with which they regarded blacks, and their social interactions ultimately led to a newfound admiration bordering on acceptance, an admiration which would be a necessity for a future of equality.

This extract from Montaigne’s ‘Des Cannibales’ is found near the beginning of the essay. It is pivotal in setting the precedent for the rest of the essay since it establishes how Montaigne came to his viewpoints on the Tupinambá since they are different to those held by many of his contemporaries. When Montaigne wrote, people were only beginning to learn about other areas of the world. People on the whole had not travelled and so held ethnocentric views regarding culture. They failed to understand the people of the New World, thus labeled them as ‘sauvage’ and ‘barbare’ something which Montaigne challenges in this essay, and specifically sets out in this extract.

The 17th century French aristocrat Michel de Montaigne lived in a tumultuous world. With the spark of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, the fire spread rapidly to France. The nation divided against itself. The rebellious protestant Huguenots and the traditional staunch Catholics both viewed the other group as idolatrous heretics in time when that crime could justify execution. Consequently, Catholic monarchs throughout Europe felt the impending threat to their reigns, too, because if they supposedly ruled through divine right, what would change concerning the support of their subjects? After the peace-making Edict of Nantes, rehashing the religious conflicts of the century was forbidden, but seeing his country—and even his own family—torn apart, how could one refrain from comment? So in his writings, Montaigne has to write around his actual subjects. This isn’t to say, however, that he conveyed none of his ideas directly. Montaigne criticizes the cultural belief in a correct way of life, opposing the idea with a more relativistic viewpoint, though the way in which he presents it, as mere musings in personal correspondence, fails to effectively convince his readers.

Maurice Druon’s “The Accursed Kings” is a very important 20th-century historical novel. It is about 14th-century Europe, centered in France. In these years, Philip the Fair is the ruler of the French kingdom, and his daughter, England’s Queen Isabella, King Edward II’s wife. It also talks about the Knights Templar and their relationship to the crown; how they cursed Philip IV and his descendants because the french kingdom condemned him and his knights to prison and death. In this analysis there will be a summary of the book, “The Accursed Kings”, and then an evaluation on if this piece of literature is accurate when representing the Middle Ages.

The rise of literacy towards the end of the Middle Ages brought with it a torrent of individuals ready to think fro themselves and formulate their own theories and ideas regarding God and the Christian faith. For a long time, the church held a near monopoly on literacy and used this to maintain control over people’s lives and beliefs. While some of these new intellectuals created ideas that would forever change the way people envision themselves and their relation to God and the universe, some simply patched together tidbits of ideas that were not born out of deep philosophical inquiry, but had more of an instinctive type of logical grounding. This was the line of thinking that made up Domenico

Interactions between people are often evaluated in terms of lands gained, lives lost, and valor earned, but there is an arguably more powerful spoil of war that is rarely discussed: the right to write the story. The victorious party gets to tell the tale, and indubitably the defeated are portrayed extremely negatively if at all. Consider the many extant ancient Spanish texts compared to the lack of decipherable Mayan texts: as part of their victory over the Mayans, the Spanish burned the Yucatan almanacs. Cultural genocide of this sort is not rare by any means; imperialism leaves a trail of extinct and dying cultures in its wake. The cannibalistic metaphor in Montaigne’s “Of Cannibals” as well as the essay itself illustrate how history is shaped by dominant narratives, made even more evident in King’s discussion of attitudes towards Native Americans in The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America.

Gulliver’s Travels and Oroonoko shatter the myth that European culture was more civilized than “newly discovered” savage countries. The most prominent examples in Oroonoko are their treatment of the slaves and how they are punished. In Gulliver’s Travels the evidence revolves around how petty, destructive, illogical, and unreasonable human beings act. Though the authors of these stories differ on many levels from their writing style to the very reason why their story was written they have a common theme. They show glaring evidence that European culture is actually more savage than the countries

Woolf portrays how the Europeans view themselves as high and pristine through the stories of the white men because of their preconceived idea of the East . In a hotel smoking room many men discuss the East and their civilization. While arguing about whether or not white men should impose their own beliefs onto the East, a stock jobber brings forth an idea, “Rule’ em, I say, rule ‘em, if you’re going to rule ‘em. Look after ‘em of course: give ‘em schools, if they want education... But let ‘em know you are top dog. That’s the way to run an eastern country. I am a white man, you’re black; I’ll treat you well, give you courts and justice; but I’m the superior race, I’m master here” (Woolf 203). Europeans view themselves as “the superior race” and treat the ruling of an eastern country as pity work.