Montaigne et la sociabilité des Cannibales

Montaigne and the sociability of Cannibals

Abstract

It is striking to see the Cannibals evoked in the “Apologie de Raimond
Sebond” (II, 12), more especially after the long development on the “reason” and
the “sociability” of animals that the essayist puts in opposition to social political and
religious practices of his time. This relationship between the intelligence of animals
and what we could call the sociability of Cannibals leads to a few reflections which
allows us to better understand what we could define as extreme cases of difference,
visible among animals and Cannibals alike. Montaigne strives to rehabilitate
animals, but he also discusses differences in the social organization of the Indians
in the New World and proposes a social (even socialist) response to the moral and
cultural presuppositions and biases in the West. After a long discussion on the
sociability of animals, the Cannibals allow Montaigne to continue his investigation
of human reason by the angle of a different expression of sociability – animals and
cannibals alike – which opposes the individualism and “unsociability” of his time.

Keywords: Montaigne, Sociability, Animal, Cannibal.