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"
She gets to the witch trials about 80% through, but the case is worth the build up
5 stars
I was not expecting such a overview of medieval life and social movements, but it's absolutely crucial to the Federici's conclusions that the reader understand what had been going on. In a sense witch trials were a gruesome footnote to an all encompassing campaign to get women "under control" in developing Europe. Her discussion is reflective of academia of her time, but I feel like this work introduces further study rather than creating something we need to revise or redirect. Truly a great piece of scholarship that makes me want to hunt down every single source she used to learn more.
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 …
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 is showing its age a bit by equating "women" with "people who can become pregnant." I would love to see more exploration into how the shift in gender roles went hand in hand with queer erasure brought on by these same "Iron Centuries."
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, …
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, la acumulación originaria que impulsó al capitalismo, y las similitudes entre la situación de los pueblos sometidos en el nuevo continente y la persecución contra los pobres, por sobre todo, contra las mujeres de las clases bajas europeas.
Por supuesto, todos estos hechos encuentran su correlato en la actualidad. Esto lo explica Federici en un prólogo que te invita a iniciar la lectura de esta obra atrapante y esclarecedora.
I can't believe it took me this long to read this. Everybody should. There is far too much here to even wrap my head around, much less write about. But suffice it to say that understanding how the white supremacist, capitalist, imperialist patriarchy began will help us to undo it.
Books like this demonstrate how utterly lacking basic history education is.
A must read for intersectionalists, the interdependence of different forms of oppression has never been so clear to me. This well sourced work clearly connects sexism, racism, colonialism, homophobia and capitalism from the late middle ages to the 20th century.
This book is mindblowing in the best way. A deeply necessary read for thinking about how gender & colonization & capital are intertwined. Also, taught me a lot about a period in history I know very little about!
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. …
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. And as capitalism requires racism and patriarchy, it makes sense we need to destroy capitalism. We can do this already equipped with an ontological understanding of racism. Is there an ontological understanding of patriarchy? Does resistance to capitalism require it? Is Federici’s proposal enough?
Finally, in the introduction, Federici touches briefly on “’women’ as a category,” arguing that “’women’s history’ is ‘class history’” and “’women’ is a legitimate category of analysis” (14). I don’t disagree, but am hesitant about embracing a sharp “biological” (undefined) definition of “women.” I think there are important postmodernist contributions, in particular Butler’s critique of the gender/sex distinction and normative gender performativity, that can add to our understanding of patriarchy and offer ways to subvert it. I wonder how Federici’s account would be different if it at times included some postmodern reflections on gender. Overall I think it would have been beneficial.
