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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(1 review)

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"

7 editions

Fascinating but slightly unsatisfying

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 …

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