Of Cannibals And Of Coaches Montaigne Analysis

In Montaigne’s essays, Of Cannibals and Of Coaches, he examines the way of life and culture of those in the New World, and compares them to that of Europe. Through his examination of the people of the New World, Montaigne gains a unique perspective compared to many Europeans around him at the time, in which he seems to favor the culture and people of the New World over that of Europe. Although Montaigne starts these essays with seemingly unrelated topics such as motion sickness, this is his way of preparing the reader for what he really wants to say, which is a criticism of his own culture and people of Europe. In Montaigne’s Of Cannibals, he shares information about the strange way of life of the “noble savages”. These people are advanced despite the lack of what Europeans had, and they were still “ruled by the laws of Nature”. The

And yet, these people seemed to live in peace, without many of the problems that Europeans had. Montaigne describes how these people “settled along the sea coast” with plenty of fish and other meat. Their living structures were large and simple, which hundreds of people who could live inside. These people revolved their lives around simple religion, where the main belief is that the “soul is immortal”. There are special priests who resides in the mountains, but when they visit the village, they preach only about two specific topics, “valor against the enemy and love to their wives”. Priests who were “false” prophets were “cut into a thousand pieces” as it was considered an extreme and horrible act towards God and this punishment was therefore suitable. When the cannibals went to war or fought with others and took