In this episode, I speak with feminist writer and teacher Silvia Federici. We discuss the themes of her new book, Beyond the Periphery of the Skin: Rethinking, Remaking, and Reclaiming the Body in Contemporary Capitalism, published through PM Press. 

The body—our sense of “self” in relation to others—has been restricted, reduced, and mutilated under Capitalism and the impositions of the State. This is particularly true with women, as Federici has thoroughly examined throughout her decades of research, in particular with her seminal work Caliban and the Witch, which lucidly explores the brutal transformation European populations were forced to endure as these societies began to transition to the social order of Capitalism, now global in scope and reach. Occurring over centuries, this transition—with the enclosure of the Commons and the femicidal witch hunts—dramatically restricted of the sovereignty of the peasant class and brutalized the bodies of women. This process was fundamental in the constriction of the individual and its relations “beyond the periphery of the skin,” the consequences of which we can see up to the present moment.

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