billie_visible's review against another edition
4.0
An invigorating look at the direct link between the rise of capitalism, patriarchy, and the subsequent oppression of women as a mode of workforce production. Brilliantly intersectional in its viewpoint, perhaps the only missing links Federici has overlooked are the importance of the Silk Road in her theory and monogamy as a patriarchal reinforcement of primitive accumulation (the latter understandable as I think this theory may have come about after the publishing of this book). There are some absolutely fascinating gems within here, devastating revelations about the cyclical nature of gender fascism, and hope buried between the lines in the form of knowledge and memories our female ancestors practiced that if retained can help future generations in some way.
mark_kivimaki's review against another edition
4.0
incisive and so well argued. i can understand why this is a must read for Marxists. but even beyond that, it’s incredibly interesting historically and remains relevant today
luisaroesch's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
clovelatte's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Caliban notes. Just some main points I want to remember about what it was saying.
women’s bodies and labor as the new commons to make up for the loss of access to land and communal living. Nuclear family emerged to systematically disappear womens labor and isolate people so they are less able to organize
dissection of the body and breaking it down into working parts was necessary to force bodies into the unnatural capitalist work cycle. destroy the magic and the nature of the body and make it nothing more than a tool and then what are you to do with a tool but use it
magic is allowed to return now in pop culture because it is no longer a threat to capitalism. our society is so orderly and regimented that commodified magic is no threat.
LETTING THE SOFT ANIMAL OF YOUR BODY LOVE WHAT IT LOVES IS RESISTING
“The stakes on which witches and other practitioners of magic died, and the chambers in which their tortures were executed, were a laboratory in which much social discipline was sedimented, and much knowledge about the body was gained. Here those irrationalities were eliminated that stood in the way of the transformation of the individual and social body into a set of predictable and controllable mechanisms. And it was here again that the scientific use of torture was born, for blood and torture were necessary to ‘breed an animal’ capable of regular, homogeneous, and uniform behavior, indelibly marked with the memory of the new rules.”
In places where land enclosures were not happening the witch trials were not present. Access to land has a community building effect on humans and once you remove people from the land it becomes easier to remove them from their rights and consideration for each other as a united whole.
Persecution in the Americas mirroring what was “perfected” in Europe as a way to break up organizers. Fear and suspicion of the neighbor as a means of bringing the other to order.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Sexual assault, Abortion, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexism, Misogyny, Suicide, Violence, Antisemitism, Torture, Cannibalism, Genocide, Religious bigotry, Classism, Medical content, Racism, and Sexual violence