The Economics of the Witch Hunts & Women’s Labor

In this short video, We break down "Caliban and the Witch" by Silvia Federici, a foundational text in feminist history that rethinks the origins of modern capitalism.

Federici argues that capitalism did not emerge peacefully or naturally—it was built through violence, enclosure, and social discipline, especially targeting women, Indigenous peoples, peasants, and the poor. Central to this process were the European witch hunts, which she shows were not irrational panics, but systematic campaigns used to destroy women’s autonomy, criminalize reproductive knowledge, and enforce a new patriarchal order aligned with wage labor.

The video explains how control over women’s bodies, sexuality, and reproductive labor was essential to the rise of capitalism, and how gender oppression, colonialism, and class exploitation developed together—not separately. Figures like “the witch” and “Caliban” become symbols of resistance against emerging systems of domination.

Ultimately, this breakdown shows why Caliban and the Witch remains essential for understanding how modern ideas about gender, labor, punishment, and “normalcy” were forged—and why struggles for gender justice, bodily autonomy, and liberation are inseparable from critiques of capitalism itself.

Source:
Federici, S. (2004). Caliban and the witch: Women, the body and primitive accumulation. Autonomedia.