Summary of Silvia Federici's Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 We Love Our Country was translated by women at a feminist gathering in Copenhagen. The reading generated a discussion on the effects of the domestication of the witch and the concealment of the extermination of thousands of women in European history and culture. #2 The sixteenth and seventeenth-century witch hunts serve as a reminder that capitalist development was not a carrier of social progress. The witch hunts destroyed a holistic view of nature that set limits on the exploitation of the female body, and they deprived women of their medical practices. #3 The witch hunt is an aspect of the Great Transformation, which led to the establishment of capitalism in Europe. It must be placed in a broader context, along with other events and processes taking place at both the village and national level. #4 The English Enclosures, and more broadly the rise of agrarian capitalism, provide a relevant social background for understanding the production of many contemporary witchcraft accusations and the relation between witch-hunting and capital accumulation.