In Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici proposes that even before the 1500s as a process of primitive accumulation, proto capitalist used the witch purges in Europe to usher in the family structures required to begin capitalism, killing hundreds of thousands of women in the process.
These two hefty videos from Red Pen lay out Federici’s analysis updated with modern scholarship since Caliban’s publication to demonstrate this process in an extremely coherent way. It’s a masterpiece of historical dialectics education on Red Pen’s part and a phenomenal way to understand the deep historical roots of capitalism and the horrifying brutality of how women were violently domesticated as perhaps the most foundational piece of capitalism’s birth.
It’s been a while since reading Caliban and the Witch, but I recently bought a copy for a friend to read. So it’d be good to do a refresher if they end up wanting to talk about it in depth. I’ll have to give these a watch, thanks!
Yeah, it really depends on how you track it. Modern estimations place it from 40-60 thousand official executions. However that does not count lynchings, people who died in prison, or while being questioned or because of their torture afterwards.
In Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici proposes that even before the 1500s as a process of primitive accumulation, proto capitalist used the witch purges in Europe to usher in the family structures required to begin capitalism, killing hundreds of thousands of women in the process.
Primitive Accumulation: The Collapse of Feudalism
Primitive Accumulation: The Great European Witch Hunts
These two hefty videos from Red Pen lay out Federici’s analysis updated with modern scholarship since Caliban’s publication to demonstrate this process in an extremely coherent way. It’s a masterpiece of historical dialectics education on Red Pen’s part and a phenomenal way to understand the deep historical roots of capitalism and the horrifying brutality of how women were violently domesticated as perhaps the most foundational piece of capitalism’s birth.
It’s been a while since reading Caliban and the Witch, but I recently bought a copy for a friend to read. So it’d be good to do a refresher if they end up wanting to talk about it in depth. I’ll have to give these a watch, thanks!
I love a good quote with source! Isn’t the actual figure highly disputed?
Yeah, it really depends on how you track it. Modern estimations place it from 40-60 thousand official executions. However that does not count lynchings, people who died in prison, or while being questioned or because of their torture afterwards.