''Of Cannibals'' (''Des Cannibales'') written circa 1580 is an essay, one of those in the collection ''Essays'', by Michel de Montaigne, describing the ceremonies of the

Tupinambá people The Tupinambá are one of the various Tupi ethnic groups that inhabited present-day Brazil since before the conquest of the region by Portuguese colonial settlers. In the first years of contact with the Portuguese, the Tupinambás lived in the wh ...

in Brazil. In particular, he reported about how the group ceremoniously ate the bodies of their dead enemies as a matter of honor. In his work, he uses cultural relativism and compares the cannibalism to the "barbarianism" of 16th-century Europe. An English translation, ''Of the Caniballes'', appeared in

John Florio Giovanni Florio (1552–1625), known as John Florio, was an English linguist, poet, writer, translator, lexicographer, and royal language tutor at the Court of James I. He is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. F ...

's 1603 translation of the ''Essais''. This has often been viewed (first by

Edward Capell Edward Capell (11 June 171324 February 1781) was an English Shakespearian critic. Biography He was born at Troston Hall () in Suffolk. Through the influence of the Duke of Grafton he was appointed to the office of deputy-inspector of plays ...

in 1781) as an influence on

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's '' The Tempest'', in particular Act II, Scene 1.

References

External links

*
Of the Caniballes
'; 1603 translation by

*
Of Cannibals
'; 1685 translation by Charles Cotton *
Michel de Montaigne On the Cannibals
'; 2017 translation by Ian Johnston {{The Tempest Multiculturalism 16th-century essays French essays Essays by Michel de Montaigne Relativism Works about cannibalism