Ancient Roots of Sicily's Mafia

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Ancient Roots of Sicily's Mafia

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1ebrink17
Mar 3, 2012, 1:17 pm

Hello everyone, my name is Emily and I'm new here. Currently I am reading "A History of Muslim Sicily" by Leonard C. Chiarelli. Although the book obviously does not touch on the subject of the Cosa Nostra, I think I may have found some info that would seem to foreshadow the eventual development of the Mafia on the island. When Muslims ruled the island, different groups had to pay a tribute to the Muslim rulers and in exchange they became "dhimma" or "protected people". In addition, they were allowed to settle feuds and such by themselves-- by their own rules, keeping them out of the (Muslim) courts. So, I can see how such a form of self-government and protected interests would make fertile ground for a homegrown organization like the Mafia. What do others think? Does anyone know how the Mafia came to develop in Sicily? (My father recalls reading that the Mafia modeled themslves on ancient Romans).

2AndreasJ
Edited: Mar 3, 2012, 1:24 pm

I'd think it unlikely there's a particular connection. First, the dhimma business is pretty standard for non-Muslim populations living under Muslim rule, not just Sicily. Second, other bits of southern Italy, that were never under Muslim control, have very similar organized crime groups (eg. the Camorra of Naples).

3ebrink17
Mar 3, 2012, 1:52 pm

You make some good points. I don't know much about this subject, but I know that the Mafia thrives where there is no strong and righteous government/law enforcement, which is probably why the Mafia in the U.S eventually branched out and went West.

4Feicht
Mar 3, 2012, 9:13 pm

I think the real answer is that human society is kind of naturally "mafia-esque" to a certain extent. But if we're looking for one particular group as the origin of what we think about as the traditional mafia, it seems inescapable to me that Casa Nostra and all that can be traced back to the Romans.

5ebrink17
Mar 3, 2012, 10:42 pm

well, i have learned that *American* society is obviously mafiaesque, despite all the loud talk about personal freedoms and unity, but as for the whole of humanity, I have more faith in other societies I have not lived in, that they would not be this way. I have seen with my eyes people selling their souls and their children's souls out, maybe because they want to feel important and part of something bigger than just being little shits of suburbia.

6alaudacorax
Mar 4, 2012, 7:25 am

I studied the Italian Renaissance at some point, and I remember being struck by the similarities between some of the ruling families of the medieval and Renaissance Italian city-states and what we know (from popular culture, at least) of the Mafia. Mafia culture seemed to be modelled, in some ways, on those families - as Puzo and Coppola depict it, anyway; there might, of course, be quite a difference between the Mafia in popular culture and the real thing.

7shikari
Edited: Mar 4, 2012, 3:26 pm

I think you're right to think of foreign occupation as the conditions that allowed a Mafia culture - an insider culture protected by silence. But whether the Muslim occupation produced direct ancestor of the present-day Mafia rather than setting attitudes I doubt. After all, foreign occupation didn't stop with the Muslims; the Normans, the Hohenstaufens, and then the Spanish with the Inquisition and all occupied it in their wake. The Bourbons were the last to occupy Sicily. Giuseppe Tomaso di Lampedusa's celebrated novel il Gattopardo ('the Leopard', though better translated as 'the Serval') is on the fall of the Bourbons as Garibaldi led the unification of Italy. Oh, I'm forgetting the Allied occupation in 1943.

8ebrink17
Mar 4, 2012, 4:16 pm

I think you're right to think of foreign occupation as the conditions that allowed a Mafia culture - an insider culture protected by silence. But whether the Muslim occupation produced direct ancestor of the present-day Mafia rather than setting attitudes I doubt. After all, foreign occupation didn't stop with the Muslims; the Normans, the Hohenstaufens, and then the Spanish with the Inquisition and all occupied it in their wake. The Bourbons were the last to occupy Sicily. Giuseppe Tomaso di Lampedusa's celebrated novel il Gattopardo ('the Leopard', though better translated as 'the Serval') is on the fall of the Bourbons as Garibaldi led the unification of Italy. Oh, I'm forgetting the Allied occupation in 1943.

9nathanielcampbell
Mar 4, 2012, 5:04 pm

>4 Feicht:: That's why our Latin teacher in high school had us watch The Godfather while reading Cicero.

10alaudacorax
Mar 4, 2012, 6:30 pm

Um - what's going on with #7 & #8?

11Makifat
Mar 4, 2012, 6:52 pm

I'd put it back at least as far as the Greek colonization, with the concept of blood feud. Still, there is that little speech in one of the Godfather movies when the pudgy little guy (Clemenza, a curious name to say the least!) explains that the Mafia was structured on the Roman military.

12Makifat
Mar 4, 2012, 6:59 pm

No, wait. It wasn't Clemenza. It was the other guy. The fellow with the mustache and the raspy voice. That ought to narrow it down.

13shikari
Edited: Mar 5, 2012, 8:03 am

>#10

No idea - hope my message (#7) hasn't overwritten something more interesting from ebrink17 (#8).

14MarysGirl
Mar 5, 2012, 11:42 am

Interesting discussion. I thought I saw the roots of the Mafia in the Roman collegia, those groups of toughs who "protected" various shopkeepers and cared for the crossroads lares.

15shikari
Mar 5, 2012, 12:35 pm

14> MarysGirl
That's certainly how it's presented in the series Rome.

16ebrink17
Mar 5, 2012, 1:05 pm

I am glad "The Godfather" film was mentioned. I read somwhere once that the glamour we associate with today's mafia was actually a conscious imitation on the part of today's mafia, imitating the glamour of the people in the film. It would be interesting to know how the Sicilian mafia in the old days dressed and acted. Also, the Godfather movies show the mafia devolving from righteous beginings as a group of robin hoods standing up for the people, to being just a bunch of souped-up greedy thugs with no honor. This is most strikingly shown in The Godfather part 2, where we learn about the young Vito Corleone, played by Robert DiNero. He is portrayed as the sort of robin hood figure I mentioned,killing the man who killed his own father and later, in new York's Little Italy, killing a corrupt mafia boss-- which is how Vito Corleone becomes boss. In the first Godfather we see the eldest son, Sonny, killing his brother-in-law because he is beating up his sister. But then Sonny gets killed. Again, we see a progression from righteous intentions (Sonny killing the man who is beating up his sister) to senseless bloodbaths (Sonny getting killed). Michael Corleone embodies all these tensions. he wants to be righteous but he is, perhaps, living in a time and place where there can be no such thing as a righteous, upstanding mafia boss. Only thugs who act out of revenge and greed.