Consider Montaigne's assertion concerning a New World tribe that practices cannibalism: "We may then call these people barbarous, in respect to the...

Yes,
Montaigne's assertion that so-called "civilized" societies exceed "simpler"
societies in terms of barbarity and violence still rings true to today. More powerful societies,
as Montaigne understood, are quick to point the condemning finger at the actions of other,
"simpler" societies while ignoring or rationalizing the much greater violence of their
own way of life. The Amish might have some problems with sexual or physical abuse, for
exampleand those transgressions are often widely publicized as a great and shocking horrorbut
the Amish haven't started wars that have cost millions of lives, they don't have nuclear
arsenals, and they don't incarcerate a shocking percentage of their population in cage-like
prison cells. While we in "civilization" no longer have very many "simpler"
societies still existing in the world to compare ourselves to, we also might condemn the
remnants of Stone Age tribes in the Amazon who ritually club each other over the head and say
that is terrible,...