Page 198 - Mediterranea-ricerche storiche, n. 48, aprile 2020flip

198 Roberto Rossi

House inmates. The other significant element is the role played by
religion in the re-educational and disciplinary process. In the case of
Mexico City Poor House the regulations provide for the pervasiveness
of ecclesiastical offices and their total integration into the daily life of
the inmates. This role is confirmed by the presence of two permanent
chaplains (with a high salary compared to that of other officials of the
institute) and by some "weekly" chaplains who had the obligation to
attend for the carrying out of the numerous religious functions set to
mark the time inside the Poor House. And yet, despite the importance
given to religion in the disciplinary process, the resources set aside for
the maintenance of ecclesiastical offices were largely inferior to those
of the Palermo poor house, which, on the other hand, provided only
one weekly religious service and confession once a month.
Finally, there is the importance of the body control that is a not
secondary question within a mode of production conceived to extract
labour use. The conflict between work and capital seems clarified in
such process of extraction . The capital is only devoted to insure the
69
reproduction of the means of production of the workers and, on the
other side, to control the bodies by bio-political tools. The paid salaries
could be considered the proof that we do not deal exclusively with
“imprisoned” work but rather we are faced with different forms of un-
free or “almost free” work, what they are not that commodified work.

69 P. Thompson, Adler’s Theory of the Capitalist labour Process cit., pp. 1360-1361.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Aprile 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)