Caliban and the Witch

01Federici traces the witch trial peak to the exact decades when European feudal commons were being legally enclosed and privatized.
02She argues contraceptive knowledge — held by women healers — was the specific threat that made midwives and herbalists targets for execution.
03'Caliban and the Witch' was rejected by major publishers for 15 years before Autonomedia released it; it is now assigned in over 200 universities.

01Roman officer Volusenus struck Commius in the head with a sword during a supposed parley; Commius escaped and swore never to set eyes on a Roman again.
02Commius later negotiated a formal peace with Mark Antony on the sole condition that he never be required to enter Roman presence.
03He eventually crossed to Britain, founded a dynasty among the Atrebates tribe, and minted coins bearing his own name — the only Gallic rebel to build a kingdom afterward.

Exterior view of the building known as Ransom Room, in Cajamarca where the Inca Atahualpa was confined.

The immortal Zhang shooting at the Tiangou

Silvia Federici's 2004 'Caliban and the Witch' reread the witch trials as primitive accumulation — capitalism's founding act required burning the women who held communal knowledge of contraception, land, and the body.