Between 1975 and 1979 approximately two million men, women, and children died during the Cambodian genocide. These deaths are attributed to specific administrative policies and practices initiated by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), all of which were geared toward the basic objective of increasing agricultural production as a means of building socialism. A crucial question regarding these practices was whether the CPK implemented policies designed specifically to destroy the traditional family structure of Cambodia. Drawing on the work of Silvia Federici, this article argues that policies and practices forwarded by the CPK constitute a variation of primitive accumulation; and that transformations of the traditional family structure were conditioned by the overall social organization of production initiated by the CPK. However, a more pressing form of gendered violence is apparent–a mode that pivots on the social ordering of the CPK’s political economy. © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

social reproduction primitive accumulation Cambodia gendered violence Silvia Federici

family structure gender relations policy approach sexual violence Cambodia Genocide marriage agricultural production