Caliban and the Witch

Women, The Body, and Primitive Accumulation

Paperback, 288 pages

English language

Published Oct. 1, 2004 by Autonomedia.

ISBN:
978-1-57027-059-8
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OCLC Number:
53122730

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4 stars (24 reviews)

Caliban and the Witch is a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch-hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the battle against the rebel body and the conflict between body and mind are essential conditions for the development of labor power and self-ownership, two central principles of modern social organization.

"It is both a passionate work of memory recovered and a hammer of humanity's agenda." Peter Linebaugh, author of The London Hanged"

4 editions

Fascinating but slightly unsatisfying

4 stars

Federici brings to life a picture of the early middle ages that smashed a lot of stereotypes I had. She reveals what a rich time it was, but also chock full of peasant uprisings against a (re-)emergent aristocracy. She successfully contrasts it with the "Iron Centuries" where women were further pushed out of the public sphere into a highly gendered, mechanistic world that turned people's reproductive bodies into a new commons to be mastered by the state. She also points to many "heretical" movements that could have possibly been the ecofeminist alternative communities resisting this movement.

Where I felt it falls short is while she investigates several lines of development, it is never combined into an overall narrative that I was hoping she would write. Some claims also seemed a bit thin and were difficult to verify, but definitely have left me curious and wanting to learn more. And it …

Review of 'Caliban and the Witch' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

TL;DR: 10/10 BUENÍSIMO LIBRO LÉANLO



Para Silvia Federici, el capitalismo fue la respuesta de las clases dominantes frente a las rebeliones populares anti-feudalistas. En este trabajo, da cuenta de cómo a través de políticas estatales de privatización y despojo, inicia la reconfiguración de la vida en torno al factor salario. En este escenario, los poderes de la época recurrieron a implantar regímenes de terror y represión violenta contra quienes representaban un peligro para la instalación del nuevo orden. A estas personas rebeldes se les acusó, en primera instancia, de herejía, y posteriormente de brujería, en una etapa dónde el mayor enemigo del modelo económico entrante fueron las mujeres. Federici profundiza en el rol de la mujer como eje organizativo en las comunidades autónomas, y como siempre han estado presentes en las rebeliones contra el poder.

Otro punto importante del libro consiste en la relación existente entre la conquista de América, …

Review of 'Caliban and the Witch' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Part of my response paper:

I found this book fascinating, as until the last chapter it covered what was largely new ground to me. The resistance of the serfs to feudalism and early capitalism was inspiring and the thesis that the witch-hunt was a mechanism to regiment and subordinate women to the requirements of capitalism, in particular primitive accumulation, was compelling.

At the same time, something felt off to me about the book. Perhaps it was because this paradigm-shifting argument fit together so neatly (Marxists do love their teleology), but often without primary sources or the use of single examples extrapolated to apply to a broad setting.

Or perhaps it’s because I’ve understood patriarchy as a pre-capitalist phenomenon, which Federici doesn’t deny, but the weight she gives to capital in the creation of patriarchal oppression of proletarian women is obvious. Whereas capitalism constructed racism, it seems to have modified patriarchy. …

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Subjects

  • Cultural studies
  • Social theory
  • Women's studies
  • Women's Studies - History
  • Women - Modern History
  • Social Science
  • Sociology
  • Modern - 16th Century
  • Social History
  • Women's Studies - General
  • Capitalism
  • Economic conditions
  • Europe
  • History
  • Social conditions
  • Women

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