In her powerful book Caliban
and the Witch (Autonomedia 1998/2014), Silvia Federici makes the important
claim that the medieval witch-hunt across Europe constituted part of the
processes of primitive accumulation, preparing the ground for the emergence of
capitalism. While the enclosures put an end to people’s access to the commons,
the witch-hunt resulted in the loss of women’s control over their bodies. In
this blog post, I will reflect critically on Federici’s assessment of the role
of the witch-hunt in the emergence of capitalism.
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