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A review by charburlingame
Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women by Silvia Federici
5.0
Big big fan of how much I learned from this one. Keeping in mind that this is a sort of summary/expansion of the main points of Caliban and the Witch, I thought this book accomplished what it meant to.
Part One revisits the basics of capital accumulation and the history European witch hunts: the origins, the lasting implications, and how the two are tied to the origins of capitalism. I learned a lot about the Middle Ages (having previously known pretty much nothing) and the most fascinating parts of the book were how Federici traces what she calls the "circumstantial evidence" of conditions in the Middle Ages leading to the witch hunts and how this killing of women was instrumental to the origin of European capitalism. The central argument is that enclosures, the privatization of communal land, and a new cultural disapproval of charity led to both the ostracization of single, older women who no longer owned property and the beginning of economic exchange within the family unit. Community is killed as a result, and combined with a new "fear of femininity" the witch accusations were a mechanism to kick-start primitive accumulation.
Federici uses this argument in Part Two as she transitions to the Neo-colonial era. What are the driving forces behind the spike in violence towards women and the new witch hunts, literal and otherwise, that we see in the modern world? Federici answers: "the new forms of capital accumulation, which involve land dispossession, the destruction of communitarian relations, and an intensification in the exploitation of women's bodies and labor." In other words, the capitalist cycle repeats itself in an age of globalization or "political recolonization." Violence against women is necessary in order to achieve Neo-colonial control of nations because the reproduction of labor power must also be controlled. Not only this, but Federici criticizes agencies like the World Bank for promoting the commercialization of land, deeming it "nonproductive" if it is used as a means of livelihood/shelter, which reinforces the notion that if you are nonproductive, if you are a single/old woman who cannot bear children, you are a drain on resources and must be removed.
I can see where one could poke holes in the story Federici tells, though I think this would be the wrong book to refute as it is merely a summary of points she makes extensively in Caliban. All this to say, Caliban and the Witch is now at the top of my list.
Part One revisits the basics of capital accumulation and the history European witch hunts: the origins, the lasting implications, and how the two are tied to the origins of capitalism. I learned a lot about the Middle Ages (having previously known pretty much nothing) and the most fascinating parts of the book were how Federici traces what she calls the "circumstantial evidence" of conditions in the Middle Ages leading to the witch hunts and how this killing of women was instrumental to the origin of European capitalism. The central argument is that enclosures, the privatization of communal land, and a new cultural disapproval of charity led to both the ostracization of single, older women who no longer owned property and the beginning of economic exchange within the family unit. Community is killed as a result, and combined with a new "fear of femininity" the witch accusations were a mechanism to kick-start primitive accumulation.
Federici uses this argument in Part Two as she transitions to the Neo-colonial era. What are the driving forces behind the spike in violence towards women and the new witch hunts, literal and otherwise, that we see in the modern world? Federici answers: "the new forms of capital accumulation, which involve land dispossession, the destruction of communitarian relations, and an intensification in the exploitation of women's bodies and labor." In other words, the capitalist cycle repeats itself in an age of globalization or "political recolonization." Violence against women is necessary in order to achieve Neo-colonial control of nations because the reproduction of labor power must also be controlled. Not only this, but Federici criticizes agencies like the World Bank for promoting the commercialization of land, deeming it "nonproductive" if it is used as a means of livelihood/shelter, which reinforces the notion that if you are nonproductive, if you are a single/old woman who cannot bear children, you are a drain on resources and must be removed.
I can see where one could poke holes in the story Federici tells, though I think this would be the wrong book to refute as it is merely a summary of points she makes extensively in Caliban. All this to say, Caliban and the Witch is now at the top of my list.