“… I find (from what has been told me) that there is nothing savage or barbarous about those peoples, but that every man calls barbarous anything he is not accustomed to; it is indeed the case that we have no other criterion of truth or right-reason than the example and form of the opinions and customs of our country.” (82)
In this quote, Montaigne recognizes the wrongs in calling these people from the New World barbarians. He realizes that his people were merely judging the natives based on their own customs and what they knew and were used to. Montaigne acknowledges that he first saw them as barbarous because of how close they lived to “their original state of nature.” These people had no systems of trade, writing, inheritances, and division of the rich and the poor. As described, the natives spent their days dancing; the younger men would go off on hunts while the women’s main task were to warm up the drinks for their husbands. In war, the enemies only sought to have their victims admit defeat. They had no interest in reaping the spoils of war and prisoners would rather die than to beg to be spared.
Alternatively, Montaigne acknowledges that the European people can be considered much more barbarous than the natives when observing the way they treat prisoners of war. The natives would treat their prisoners well and provide them comfort before killing them and eating them after they were dead. They didn’t eat the prisoners as merely just food but instead, this was to “symbolize ultimate revenge.” The Europeans on the other hand, would torture a prisoner and roast him “little by little and having him bruised and bitten by pigs and dogs.” Their doctors would then have no problem using the corpses to treat others. Montaigne recognizes that they shouldn’t have been so quick to judge the natives and call them barbarians when they themselves commit much more gruesome acts.
I agree that this quote is a good representation of how Montaigne recognized his wrongs, that he was too quick to judge the Natives and called them “barbarians”. Rather than witnessing it for himself, he took into account what other people were telling him about the indigenous peoples as the truth. After observing the Natives, he found that they were more noble in their warfare. Another example of this would be when Montaigne states, “They are not striving to conquer new lands, since without toil or travail they still enjoy that bounteous Nature who furnishes them.” This means that they had no imperialistic intentions, but rather fought for the land they already had because they actually needed it. The Europeans on the other hand fought to conquer land as a claim for power.