A nobleman decided 'barbarian' was just a word for 'unfamiliar'

In his 1580 essay 'Of Cannibals', Michel de Montaigne used reports of Brazilian Tupinamba people to turn European assumptions back on themselves, arguing that calling another culture savage says more about the observer's narrow frame of reference than about the culture itself. His motto 'Que sais-je?' ('What do I know?') ran through all his essays, treating self-doubt as a discipline rather than a weakness. He helped invent the personal essay as a vehicle for philosophy.

— Michel de Montaigne, Essays — 'Of Cannibals', Book I, Ch. 31 (1580)
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