Philosophy 62 Essay
3/9/11
“Caliban and the Witch”
“Caliban and the Witch” is a wonderful book written by Silvia Federici. This book consists the basis and the importance of labor power, the history, and the concepts of the body, and also about Capitalism. Federici got the name Caliban from Shakespeare’s book “The Tempest”. Federici has many details that I find much tensed, of what many people went through. “Caliban and the Witch” is about the transition to Capitalism, and also about the peasant revolts in the middle ages. As I started to read the book, I noticed that Federici analyzed the history that took place in Medieval Europe, and what I found interesting was the part about the basic role of women in …show more content…
A difficult time that took place was during he 16th, and 17th century Europe. During that time, pregnancies were required to be registered with the authorities, and marriage was an important part. It was very difficult for the women that were deprived from their means in tradition of Contraception, and abortion. The work that was being done by females was described as housekeeping. It was assumed that people should have not been working outside of their home. In the 16th century, people lived in a sexist society, where European females had retained economic independence from males that usually don’t underneath Capitalism, where genders are very important. In the medieval society, females had many tasks like washing, and harvesting. The Witch hunt was like a time period, where the females had to become servants to the men’s work force. The writer Silvia Federici explains in this particular book, about the sexuality of a female, which is type of female’s power over males. The object of mystery, and suspicion, was coming under attack by authorities. There were new laws that was taking away the female’s control over reproductive process, for example, banning the birth control measures, and also not having midwives instead replacing them with male doctors, and also the abortion being …show more content…
Things like that prevailed during the middle ages, in the 16th century which was celebrated in Europe”. Witch hunt did not just target the sexuality of a female, but also homosexuality that crafted the boundaries that take place in the society. The politics of gender was part of the feudal system which was in Crisis. As the movements were increasing, the revolutionary was increasing also. Those that were elite European nobles, in the working class were destroying, and also threatened rule The Witch hunt was like a Capitalist paradigm. The Capitalism was known as a counter-revolution which ruined the parts of the anti-feudal problem. In the book, Federici had concepts about witch burning, and she compared it to the 21st century, “War on terrorism”, which crushed the peasant women. It showed how women took part as leaders of peasant rebellions. Federici’s book reminded me of the article that Jeanne Theoharris wrote. This article was very stressful, which was mainly about Syed Hashmi who was sent to jail. I find it very painful for one to go through that pain, and that is not right, how can a human being be treated for something like that. Syed Hashmi had no access to anything, he was not allowed to contact anyone. Syed’s family misses him, and one can tell that Syed is well educated who attended Brooklyn