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natoushki 's review for:
Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation
by Silvia Federici
Jan 2022: Updating after rereading. I remain blown away by Federici's work. While I certainly read with a more nuanced eye this time around, I still ADORE this book. Federici’s writing is lovely, her arguments incisive, her historical grounding incredibly persuasive, and her book unbelievably brilliant. Caliban and the Witch provides an incredibly robust political economic analysis of the transition to capitalism from the viewpoint of gender relations. Some key themes: primitive accumulation as “an accumulation of differences," particularly in relation to gender, which led to: the relegation of women to the “domestic” sphere, their exclusion from the wage, the politicization and policing of (especially female) sexuality, the destruction of women’s knowledge, the demonization of (particularly female) bodies, and a reign of terror waged against women and their collective powers of resistance via witch-hunts. Women as the new “commons," women's bodies as "enclosed" by witch hunts, and continuities between the subjugation of European proletarian women and the subjugation of colonized Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans. Plenty of (both sad and hopeful) echoes into today.
Some more (careful) attention to race and racialization, settler colonialism, and queer theory would be warranted. Even so, the incredibly deft way in which Federici critiques and expands upon both Marx and Foucault is unrivaled and should place this book squarely in the "canon" of political economy (and political ecology, sociology, anthro, etc.). Thus the 5 stars!
Oct 2020: What an intellectually delectable and satisfying work!!!
Some more (careful) attention to race and racialization, settler colonialism, and queer theory would be warranted. Even so, the incredibly deft way in which Federici critiques and expands upon both Marx and Foucault is unrivaled and should place this book squarely in the "canon" of political economy (and political ecology, sociology, anthro, etc.). Thus the 5 stars!
Oct 2020: What an intellectually delectable and satisfying work!!!