The people of Montaigne’s ‘Of the Cannibals’ are referred to as ‘noble savages.’ To Montaigne it seemed odd that people without ‘benefits of Christianity and civilization,’ were advanced. It’s significant to first understand their government because ‘they are still ruled by laws of nature.’ In a time when Europe was coming into Age of Reason, this work provided an example of almost an opposite society. This ‘savage’ society functioned without any traffic, letters, numbers, positions of power, slaves, wealth, poverty, contracts, successions, partitions, occupation, clothing, agriculture or metals. Words ‘falsehood, treachery, dissimulation, avarice, envy, detraction, pardon’ were unheard of. Montaigne’s ‘Of the Cannibals’ examines daily life, family, religion and warfare of these inhabitants of New World.…show more content… These people are “settled along the sea coast” with an abundance of both fish and other meat. They live in basic and easily constructed buildings that are “very long, capable of holding two or three hundred” people. Women and men sleep apart from each other in individual beds “suspended from the roof.” After sunrise they eat their one meal for the day but drink nothing with that meal. During the day they drink a beverage made from a “root” and “only drink it warm.” As far as work goes, it’s fairly nonexistent. The most they will do is hunt, dance, and warm the drink. The education of these people is very limited. Elders recommend “only two things, valour against the enemy and love to their wives.” Although their way of life seems limited, they live happily with their way of life. It is normal for a man to have many wives, and more if their “reputation for valor is greater.” The women do not feel jealousy toward each other but work “to have as many companions” as possible because it is an indication “of their husband’s
