Taming Montaigne In A Savage Era

Domesticando Montaigne em uma Era Selvagem

Abstract

This paper will focus on the circumstances and cultural phenomena which
led to the very particular way — economic and behavioral — in which the French
interacted with the indigenous peoples of Brazil. A confluence of two conditions
made it possible for the Normans and Amerindians to cooperate. First, not being
able to count on steady support from the French Crown, the Normans had to deal
directly with the Amerindian populations, and to do so, became familiar with their
cultures and languages. Second, the Tupinambá recognized that strength could
accrue from trading beyond one’s ethnic group. This essay will reflect on common
views of valor in warfare espoused by the Brazilians and apparent in Montaigne’s
Essais. Montaigne opposes valor to cruelty and shows how France, through the
excesses of the Wars of Religion, had lost touch with the concept of courage, so
basic to natural law as viewed by the Tupinambá.

Keywords: Montaigne, Essais, Norman and Breton sailors, Tupinambá, French
Wars of Religion, cannibalism, mercantilism.