"Des cannibales" ou le dégoût de la domination

"Of Cannibals" or the disgust of domination

Abstract

We propose to read the chapter “Cannibals” in the light of Montaigne’s
statement that he is “disgusted with mastery, and active and passive” (III, 7, 917).
What appears at first as a personality trait in fact constitutes the Montagnian ethos
that appears in the Essays, and especially in the one that interests us here. This
repulsion towards the relations of domination between men thus illuminates his
discourse on the meeting between the Amerindian and European peoples, and, by
this detour, on the relationship between the members of his own society. This ethos
also appears in the conversation that Montaigne leads with his own reader through
his particular writing, which refuses to dogmatically assert truths, and creates a
space conducive to the reflexive and imaginative solicitation of the reader.

Keywords: Amerindians, authority, domination, ethos, knowledge