7/2/2023 0 Comments Caliban and the witch bookIt seems, at times, in attempting to develop Marxist ideas of reproduction and gender through the lens of the body, Federici becomes tunnel-visioned, failing to appreciate women as workers in the traditional sense. Federici’s method is centred on embodiment, as she attempts to locate the source of women’s oppression under capitalism in the body and reproductive servitude. In Caliban and the Witch, Federici moves from the peasant revolts of the late Medieval period to the witch-hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy to develop the historical groundings of social reproduction theory. Moreover, it is timely to revisit the question of witch-hunts, a phenomenon which has historically (and to a lesser extent, in modern times) cost the lives of many innocent women. Social reproduction theory, which explains how the replenishment of labour each day is essential to capitalism, helps us tie together these issues. The fact that more work has been piled into the home, and that this has been disproportionately shouldered by women, has shone a spotlight on pre-existing inequalities. The call to ‘stay at home’ during the pandemic has raised vital questions about care, work, the home and capitalism. First published in 2004, Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici is a work well worth revisiting in 2020.
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