The Witch Trials and the Rise of Modernity and Capitalism - Sylvia Federici - Caliban and the Witch
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- In this episode of Esoterica we explore Sylvia Federici's thesis that the witch trials, rather than being a peripheral event in European history, were pivotal in the transition to capitalism and modernity. She argues that the social instability of the middle ages was tipped into social chaos with the advent of the Black Death. In the aftermath, ruling powers sought to suppress workers' uprisings, women's autonomy, and peasant rebellions. The witch hunts served this task and beta-tested, so to speak, the social and legal procedures which would later be unleashed upon the indigenous people of the new world and African slaves.
Recommended Readings:
Federici - Caliban and the Witch - 978-1570270598
Federici - Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women - 978-1629635682
Levack - The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe - 978-1138808102
Levack, ed. - The Witchcraft Sourcebook - 978-1138774971
Levack, ed. - The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America - 978-0198723639
Peters and Kors, ed. - Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700 - 978-0812217513
#federici #witches #trials
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This is exactly why I have been following this channel; to understand the phenomenon of mass Christian violence based on existential moral panic and it's implications regarding current events. There are no real witches, demons or devils, but the witch hunters and their manufactured moral panic lives on.
I learned about Sylvia Frederici through watching Philosophy Tube. I have always been troubled by the way many people, particularly women were treated.
This is a great video, Federici's ideas need more exposure. Thank you. Subscribed.
HOLY LORD A DEATH GRIPS REFERENCE! that's it I'm binging all 75 of the intro playlist vids
Edit: On a more serious note, this video has made me and my outspoken views, growing up in the south, feel so seen and I can't thank you enough for existing in the way that you do on this paltform.
It goes, it goes, it goes...
What a great rational and educational vid essay on this topic! Thank you so much. Ive always been interested in this topic but its hard to find information that isn't blatantly twisting historical events to suit a certain sketchy ahistorical political narrative. I know it's impossible to ever give an entirely "objective" non-political lecture on a topic like this, but I feel like you were very fair, honest, clear, and kept to the historical part of things. Thanks a lot, this had become one of my favourite channels on esoteric subjects and I love learning.
Thanks so much - I really try to present the ideas and arguments here with as little of my politics or whatever as possible...unless it's funny :) Glad you are liking the content. Share a video, if you like, to help the channel grow!
Agreeing. Thank you so very much. We are seeing Capitalism angry again about women and Cultural Rights in Tribal Cultures, religion birth controls, employment discrimination - and education- wages- child care - medical care. The right to have dignity.
This is fascinating! Truly intriguing analysis, thank you for introducing it. Especially given post-pandemic changes in anti-abortion laws in the US...
Confirms my intuition on modern day conservativism. The evil it exudes shows depth. An age beyond its existence as just a shitty political party. Sooo many things clicking at once
Yes sir. The current Republican party who worship Trump would totally take on the role of Inquisition if they could regain power. They would use the Church as a weapon just like the old days. So plain to see
Oh how I love your channel!
Thanks so much! Hope you stick around!
This channel is my favorite! It’s like the History channel used to be. Thanks you for sharing!🤩
It is definitely interesting that the birth control issue isn't often brought up about the witch hunts. More so because that is an actual claim made by many pro-lifers. Legal abortion is considered a form of pagan sacrifice in modern fundamentalist circles. I can't imagine it was any different 500 years ago.
Yep, as I think Faulkner said, "The past isn't dead, it isn't even past."
This hits harder these days 🥺
The problem I have with any sweeping explanation of Witch rias is that - as you move from the global perspective to specific cases - the phenomenon loses its seeming coherence: There are trials for sorcery which existed from the late antiquity, concerned mainly upper classes and usually had a discernible lterior motive behind them. Then there are - mostly in rural communities - generational family feuds in which witchcraft accusations are passed to eventually be brought to a tribunal many years later, if legislation at the time and place recognized the offence. When it doesn't - the accusation of poisoning might serve as a proxy, and it did well into the 18th century. Then there are the chain trials which break out, often kindled by the initative of a single, ideologically (or sometimes finantially) motivated individual and eventually curbed by a higher authorty as they begin to take too broad swipes. Only the latter are distinctly Early-modern, contingent on the idea of "the sect of witches". Those cases resemble modern "satanic panics" the most.
What strikes me in the "witch hunts" is not that there were cynical or conspiracy-minded people who would perpetrate them, but that - within the ideological context of the times - those who would oppose them and the idea of witchcraft (and the opposition was there from the get go) couldn't come up with a conclusive argument against it. The witch hunts were never "debunked" - they ended when they were suppressed by legal authorities. It's like the concept of the conspiacy of witches was a "memetic virus" to which Early-modern Europe was immunocompromised. Why it was so is the question which bugs me the most about witch hunts.
I share that sense and I also think that the hunts were strongly over-determined. I think that Federici adds another heap to that pile and does some interesting functionalist work as well. What's also interesting is that when they were over everyone seems to agree that it was a total blunder - especially in Salem. I can't think of a single 'witch trial' revisionist. At this point it seems hard to even find anyone to argue there were any witches at all.
@@TheEsotericaChannel A single 'witch trial revisionist'? Montague Summers (it was an act, but still). And presently (?) his spiritual son, bishop Sean Manchester (check this character out). And for people who are vehement about there being witches, there are plenty of those in Africa.
@@M-CH_ Right, Africa for sure but I think that is a very different phenomenon. I guess I should have said not-utterly-toys-in-the-attic people :)
You make your videos so easy to digest, even for a dumb 22 year old. Thank you sir! 12/10
I doubt you are 'dumb' - but I am glad the content is accessible!
Thank you. I’ve now bought Caliban and the Witch. This theory hadn’t crossed my desk but makes complete sense, unfortunately. I’m also reading Feminism for the 99% - a manifesto. Also addresses the issues of the oppression of women in capitalism. Love your channel - enlightening and we enjoy your dry wit ❤
*gestures vaguely to the state of the world today* yeah, I'd say they have a really good reflection of post-plague times. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
This is a brilliant video. Making connections in such an interesting and powerful way. Will definitely follow the book by Sylvia Federici. I am loving your work. I just noticed a new edition of her book is being published later this year.
Omg we are at the SAME place NOW. Holy fucking shit
I am getting strong feelings of deja vu.
Amazing history, thank you so much for spreading the knowledge!
Insightful and educational - I always enjoy your videos :)
Ah yes! That special intersection between the esoteric and Marxist analysis (class theory).
It does take a truly sociological imagination to get even a partial feeling for the social dynamics that lead to this odd explosion of colonialism out of Europe and eventually to every corner of the planet. Eventually leading an ideology of denying anything non material (scientism).
This is an angle I'd love to see more about on this channel.
William Irwin Thompson is a great author/ storyteller to listen to, in applying a mythopoetic approach to history. "The Time That Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture".
Fascinating! I'm really enjoying this playlist - thanks for making & sharing it with us! ❤️❤️
Didn't expect the video to tackle social and political themes that are still relevant today. Thanks for enlightening me!
Yep, the we are never really far from the past, sadly.
Fantastic video, as usual. You make these subjects easy to digest for laypeople like myself. Keep up the great work!
Thanks - a great piece of advice I was given is that if you can't explain something to someone you meet on the bus then you really don't understand it yourself. Hopefully, if any of the content here is inaccessible then I'm to blame, not the viewer. Thanks for watching!
It’s disheartening to see the same misogyny, in modern society. 😫🤦🏼♀️
Great video. I never leave a video without at least one(or four) book I want to read, you should consider putting some Amazon referral links up.
That's a good idea - maybe I will do that! Thanks!
My first thoughts on this, without reading Federici's book is that it may be pushing a feminist agenda a bit too far. I have no doubt that some of the components of her thesis about the desire to subjugate women is correct, but I think the ideas of R.I. Moore in his book "The Formation Of A Persecuting Society" have an overarching relevance. Moore's idea is that during the European Middle Ages, there developed in Europe a unique obsession of singling out definable minorities for persecution, a behavior which is seen at times in most societies, even on a tribal level, but which in Europe became a standard tool of government and control. Those subject to persecution included heretics, Jews, Muslims, sodomites, witches lepers and other "races". This was mostly justified by appeal to Christianity and often authorized and even carried out by the Church, but was in reality as much a tool of secular power. The unique darkness laid upon the European psyche by the Church which filled minds with guilt, fear, demons, devils, dark powers, threats on every side, a God who punished people for sin, and the belief that anything a bit out of the ordinary was the work of evil powers, naturally aided and promoted the use of persecution to placate this angry deity who was causing misfortune and disaster as His punishment. In this light, the persecution of witches was simply a continuation of that deeply ingrained practice in European society.
But, it was also, in this light, a means of power and control, so why not over women. However, I feel there are deeper cultural sources of European misogyny which may be relevant for the reasons witches were picked on. Are these explored at all in this book. The Church certainly denied women most rights, claiming that they were the origin of sin and the reason for the fall, but preceding European cultures such as the Greeks and Romans were deeply misogynistic and their influence may well have continued well after their disappearance. Seems a very complicated subject which has many areas to explore.
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very well presented, thank you.
I NEVER expected to see mc ride in one of your vids. Very cool mr sledge
Love it. You're an amazing teacher and I look forward to every video!
Thank you so much and thanks so much for supporting the channel!
Wow! Really good presentation! Thank you!
the more things change the more they stay the same
🌹 thank you 💥🌹
I don't know. I'm skeptical.
Nothing new under the sun
My brand of feminist view would not have gone down well.
_NO_ feminist views would go over during that period!
Thanks for filling in the history.
Sobering to see all human activity be driven by either want or fear -- the want of money and control, and the fear of everything that is not self. The devils that we are won't be vanquished until we act like the angels we've created.
Lol that Death Grips reference though kol hakavod ahi.
it goes, it goes, it goes, it goes - yah!
Well my Sunday booked...ironic ( maybe) it being Sunday lol.im hooked to this channel
Thanks!
An unrecognised (yet) shame still driving the minds of the poor (of spirit) mass people
This is EXTREMELY well written. It should blow up. So concise.
Loved this
This is an interesting take, but I can't say I am entirely convinced by it. The idea that witchunts were a reaction, a misogenistic one at that, I think is pretty credible. The conspiratorial aspect, the idea of the "directed witchunt" I take more issue with. There are several factors that make me reconsider this:
1) The witchunts spread into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. These were both economies which by-and-large remained agricultural serf economies, even after Black Death had arrived. The labour shortage in these countries was resolved by simply raising the burden on serfs, and organising mass lynching as seen in Northern Germany only risked giving a tool to the serfs to organise.
2) The European conquerers had no actual need for "trialing" systematic persecution. Such a system had already been trialed previously, notably in Prussia (today Kaliningrad) with the violent eradication of paganism there. Similar "trials" had happened in Southern Spain, or against Cathars in France. In both these cases, the justification via heresy, working with demons, apostasy and other supernatural justification was already well formed. In fact, the countries where the witch trials happened at their largest - that being Northern Germany, had no capability to colonize the New World, and had more interest in maintaining stability in Baltic and North Sea trade.
3) Ultimately the merchant class would not be interested in cooperating with the nobles, quite the oppossite. Noble priviledges - monopolies on certain trade, internal tarrifs, the exclusion of the merchant class in any political affairs beyond local level - all ran counterary to any proto-capitalist interests of the merchants.
I think that ultimately the take that the witch trials were a misoginistic reaction to aformentioned situation of women taking more control over their lives, and the increasing liberalisation was correct. However, I do not think that they were an organised conspiracy, and in fact, were a genuine conservative reaction by genuine people who had experienced major cataclysms, such as the Black Death and the Protestant Wars. It is no coincidence that the period of greatest persecution of witches in Poland directly corresponds with The Deluge, in spite of the fact that overarching state authority at that time was the weakest. In some regard I feel this theory engages in "apologia of the masses", which pits The People as being merely misled tools of The Elites, disregarding the actual cultural and religious convictions of the majority of the population. Majority of population, which at the end of the day, were conservative peasants.
Thus, I am not convinced of the link between witch trials and capitalism, as this link appears to be predecated on a conspiratorial attitude, and I am instead inclined to stick with the thus far agreed theory - that the aformentioned cataclysm of the Black Death drove the development of capitalism, not the reaction that followed it.
Love Silvia!! ❤️❤️✊🏽✊🏽
Excellent video. Thank you!
This is so insanely enlightening. Thank you.
That was, in a word, brilliant. My complaint: It was too brief! Would love a longer edition...
Thanks friend! There's always Federici's book :)
Love to see more vids like this!
Thank you Dr. Sledge. I'm new to your channel.
Welcome and thanks!
Witch hunting, the scale of its practice, its motives and its target victims varied across Europe from region to region and can hardly be described as universal or systematic. You also seem to present the idea of the Plague being responsible for the end of feudalism as if it were a theory of Federici`s when it has long been accepted as fact, ´at least in the case of Western Europe. In Eastern Europe the death rate was circa 25% (as opposed to 70% and above in the West of continental Europe) and consequently feudalism survived until it was destroyed by Communism in the 20th century
Thanks for your thoughtful comment!
God I hate how fucking relevant this is rn..... Great video, there's so much history like this that needs to be talked about because people need reminders that the same shit keeps happening and people won't learn from it.
This so so deep and eye opening great work champ
Misogyny started thousands of years ago when Monotheistic religions started to forbid the participation of women as spiritual authorities/leaders. I believe this is directly related to the growing influence of sociopathic, authoritative social structures.
Polytheistic religions were just as bad.
Depends on which one you’re talking about, many of them had women as the central religious spiritual leaders, like the Northern European pre-Christian traditions did.
But the exclusion of women in leadership roles was, as far as I know, a part of every monotheistic religion (until the 20th century).
It’s also important to note how spiritual traditions that had women as spiritual leaders where specifically targeted. There’s a reason why the number 13 is “unlucky”, cats where said to be of special importance to Freya and so cats were considered to be “witches’ familiars” and were constantly hunted in Europe. All kinds of examples of how anything that was related to women’s role in spiritual authority has been targeted and nearly wiped out of existence.
Peer reviewed evidence?
If one understands the only true definition of capitalism - the voluntary of exchange of goods, services, and monies amongst independent contractors/traders - then one will understand that capitalism has around as long as man. Any other definition of free-market capitalism (and sans a free market, there can be no true capitalism, but just perversions of it), is a bogus one. Capitalism is social system, the only one that coheres with individual rights and freedom. Moreover, it is the only moral social system, because it the only one that doesn't allow for theft and force (meaning violence).
Interesting theory and parts of it make sense however it runs into the problem of all conspiracy theories where too many people have to be in on it
Can you start a Hogwarts? You could be our Dumbledore!🤩🥳🪄🦄🧞♀️🧚♀️🧛🧙♂️🤹♂️🧙♂️🧹🏛🧐📚🪔🕯🔯🕎☪️🛐📿
Thank you Dr. Sledge for another great video 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Very interesting views! TyTy as always Bro
Thanks for watching and keeping up the moral support - means a ton to me!