Interpreting te same thing many different ways

In his essay “Of Cannibals,” Michel de Montaigne tries to explain the idea of barbarianism and finds it impossible. For every culture has a different idea of whats barbaric and what would be considered uncivilized or primitive. While some general concepts may be considered barbaric, detailed qualities of the actions may help to make them unbarbaric in some cultures. “ Each man calls barbarianism whatever is not his own practice; for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in,” (4). We live our day to day lives in our culture and with that comes the developing of that cultures beliefs and ideas.
Barbarianism seems to be a straightforward idea of horrible, innate type actions viewed that way by all. However, what can be viewed in one culture as barbaric can be viewed in another as somewhat acceptable or simply wrong instead of barbaric. Montaigne attempts to explain this diversity in his essay, and explain why this diversity forms. He talks of specific examples of barbarianism, and how in some cultures it is performed in a slightly different way and that is what makes it acceptable. One example is of a culture where the more wives a man has, the higher more respected status he has and in our culture that seems absolutely barbaric and inconceivable. Barbarianism is a loose term and can be easily interpreted many ways, in many different cultures.