Talk:History of the Mafia

It seems confusing for this page to have a link to "Castellemmarese War", which redirects back to this same page (as far as I can tell).

Re-write of article
I would really like to re-write this whole page, as I don't think it really explains how the mafia came into being, and I feel that some parts are inaccurate. I also feel that re-writing a whole article is quite drastic, so I just want to offer an outline of 'my version' of the history of the mafia, here, so that anyone who wants to contest it can do so, and anyone who wants to champion the current version will have an opportunity to do so.

Here we go:

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The mafia, which is not a single organisation, but a collection of organisations (think 'the press'), appeared in Sicily towards the end of The Risorgimento, as a response to the changing economic and political environment. Land reforms, anti-feudal laws, the state's attempts at centralisation and the increasing importance of industrial capitalism led to increasing tensions between the state, the rural elite and the peasantry. The mafia appeared as aristocracy-sponsored power-brokers, mediating and exploiting these tensions. By recruiting politicians and peasants, and by also violently repressing challenges from these groups, the mafiosi supported the interests of the rural elite, serving their own ends in the process through extortion and exploitation.

The Fascist era saw the decline of the mafia in Italy, immigration of many mafiosi, and the rise of international mafia. The fall of fascism saw the resurgence of the mafia in italy. These further events saw a change in the activity of the mafioso as old doors closed and new ones opened.

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That's my outline. Perhaps some of you would like to discuss it, help to fill it out, etc. I'll do the article writing in a couple of weeks, when I have the time, if it is generally agreed that I should.

--Dan Luba 22:40, 29 May 2005 (UTC)


 * Give it a try this article needs to redone and expanded. I nothing about this topic otherwise I would contribute. 12.220.47.145 00:16, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Fine with me - I wrote this originally. You need to keep the points about the orange and lemon groves being the Mafia's original business model for pizzu - protection money. You also need to keep the point as the Mafia as an instrument of Loval Government, as well as its emergence being around the lemon and orange groves of Palermo. Also the bit about the origin of the word is correct.

You are right to say that the Mafia was a power-broker between the land-owners and the peasants, but often Mafiosi were educated peasants, as well as the land-owners themselves - these groups were synonymous and blended into each other.

One thing you are incorrect about was the fact that the Mafia started as a collection of organisations all over Sicily - it originated in Palermo uniquely. It spread from there mainly across the West of the island. From then on, individual cosca were set up, yes, but a Mafiosi could travel from one end of Sicily to the other, and via an elaborate introudction ritual (details in John Dickie's book) could know they could do business together with the back up of the entire organisation.

But yeah you can add the bits about the Fascist era, but this part I have written is you should bear in mind, about the Early Days - ie, pre 20th century.

Me

Redunancy
This information in this article is covered in more detail in Mafia article. Suggest removing this and redirecting this to the main article.