In his essays, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), addresses frequently the subject of cultural identity. I can summarise his conclusions in two sentences. First, he acknowledges that each culture has its own rituals, likes and dislikes. Second, he rates those differences as minor if compared with the traits shared by humans in all cultures. Montaigne underlines the second aspect in his essay titled “That we all love and cry for the same thing.” He is conveying the idea that human emotions (joy, sorrow, compassion, hatred) are the same in all cultures. Nevertheless, from those cultural comparisons, Montaigne is drawing a totally false conclusion. Granted, human emotions such as joy or sorrow are the same in all cultures, but the particular object of joy or sorrow makes a world of difference. All humans can feel joy, but sane individuals are going to experience joy in different circumstances than those that make a psychopath joyful. The same principle applies to cultures. A sane culture promotes vastly different moral values than those promoted by evil cultures. Montaigne never grasped the difference between similarity of emotions and similarity of moral values. To the extent that psychopaths can experience joy and sorrow, those remain very different from the emotions of sane people. I find it unconscionable that Montaigne declared all cultures equal just because all people can experience joy and sorrow. It makes a live-or-death difference whether one lives in a culture promoting constructive or destructive moral values. Montaigne’s essay “That we all love and cry for the same thing” compares rituals, traditions and social norms in various cultures. For instance, in ancient Athens (around 600 BC), a funeral included a procession displaying the body, but later, in the Roman Republic (around 50 BC), the body was no longer displayed during the procession. Going further back in time, Montaigne mentions the funeral Scythian practices (around 700 BC) described by Herodotus in his “Histories.” The Scythians had buried their kings together with their horses, weapons, servants, and household utensils. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/michel-de-montaigne-and-cultural-identity/

Ver todos los episodios