The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra, in English "Our Thing") is acriminal syndicate inSicily, Italy.

It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise isprotection racketeering. Each group, known as a "family", "clan", or "cosca", claims sovereignty over a territory, usually a town or village or a neighbourhood (borgata) of a larger city, in which it operates its rackets. Its members call themselves "men of honour", although the public often refers to them as "mafiosi". According to the classic definition, the Mafia is a criminal organization originating in [1] Sicily. However, the term "mafia" has become a generic term for any organized criminal network with similar structure, methods, and interests. The Mafia proper frequently parallels, collaborates with or clashes with, networks originating in other parts of southern Italy, such as the Camorra (fromCampania), the 'Ndrangheta (from Calabria), the Stidda (southern Sicily) and the Sacra Corona Unita (from Apulia). Giovanni Falcone, the anti-Mafia judge murdered by the Mafia in 1992, however, objected to the conflation of the term "Mafia" with organized crime in general: While there was a time when people were reluctant to pronounce the word "Mafia" ... nowadays people have gone so far in the opposite direction that it has become an overused term ... I am no longer willing to accept the habit of speaking of the Mafia in descriptive and all-inclusive terms that make it possible to stack up phenomena that are indeed related to the field of organized crime but [2] that have little or nothing in common with the Mafia. Giovanni Falcone, 1990 The American Mafia arose from offshoots of the Mafia that emerged in theUnited States during the late nineteenth century, following waves of emigration from Italy. There were similar offshoots in Canada among Italian Canadians. The same has been claimed of organised crime [3] among Italians in Australia.
Contents
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1 Etymology

1.1 "Cosa Nostra" and other names

2 History

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2.1 Post-feudal Sicily 2.2 Fascist suppression 2.3 Post-Fascist revival 2.4 Sack of Palermo 2.5 First Mafia War 2.6 Smuggling boom 2.7 Second Mafia War 2.8 Maxi trial and war against the government

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2.9 Provenzano years 2.10 Modern Mafia in Italy

3 Definition 4 Structure and composition

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4.1 Clan hierarchy 4.2 Membership 4.3 Commission

5 Rituals and codes of conduct

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5.1 Initiation ceremony 5.2 Introductions 5.3 Etiquette 5.4 Ten Commandments 5.5 Omert

6 Protection rackets

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6.1 Protection from theft 6.2 Protection from competition 6.3 Client relations 6.4 Protection territories

7 Other activities

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7.1 Vote buying 7.2 Smuggling 7.3 Bid rigging 7.4 Loan sharking 7.5 Forbidden crimes

8 Violence and reputation

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8.1 Murder 8.2 Reputation

9 Notable Sicilian mafiosi 10 See also 11 References 12 Sources 13 External links

Etymology[edit]

There are several theories about the origin of the term "Mafia" (sometimes spelled "Maffia" in early texts). The Sicilian adjective mafiusu (in Italian:mafioso) may derive from the slang Arabic mahyas (), meaning "aggressive boasting, bragging", or marfud () meaning "rejected". In reference to a man, mafiusu in 19th century Sicily was ambiguous, signifying a bully, arrogant but also fearless, enterprising, and proud, according to scholarDiego [4] Gambetta. In reference to a woman, however, the feminine-form adjective "mafiusa" means beautiful and attractive. Other possible origins from Arabic: maha = quarry, cave
[5] [5]

mu'afa = safety, protection

The public's association of the word with the criminal secret society was perhaps inspired by the 1863 play "I mafiusi di la Vicaria" ("The Mafiosi of the Vicaria") by Giuseppe Rizzotto and Gaetano Mosca. The words Mafia andmafiusi are never mentioned in the play; they were probably put in the title to add a local flair. The play is about a Palermo prison gang with traits similar to the Mafia: a boss, an initiation ritual, and talk of "umirt" (omert or code of silence) and "pizzu" (a codeword for [6] extortion money). The play had great success throughout Italy. Soon after, the use of the term "mafia" began appearing in the Italian state's early reports on the phenomenon. The word made its [7] first official appearance in 1865 in a report by the prefect of Palermo,Filippo Antonio Gualterio. According to legend, the word Mafia was first used in the Sicilian revolt theSicilian Vespers against rule of the Capetian House of Anjou on 30 March 1282. In this legend, Mafia is the acronym for "Morte Alla Francia, Italia Avanti" (Italian for "Death to France, Italy Forward!"), or [8] "Morte Alla Francia, ItaliaAnela" (Italian for "Death to France, Italy Begs!"). However, this version [4] is now discarded by most serious historians.

"Cosa Nostra" and other names[edit]

According to Mafia turncoats (pentiti), the real name of the Mafia is "Cosa Nostra" ("Our thing"). When the Italian-American mafioso Joseph Valachitestified before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations in 1963 (known as the Valachi hearings), he revealed that American mafiosi referred to their organization by the [9][10][11] term cosa nostra ("our thing" or "this thing of ours"). At the time, it was understood as a proper name, fostered by the FBI and disseminated by the media. The designation gained wide [citation needed] popularity and almost replaced the term Mafia. . The FBI even added the article la to the term, calling it La Cosa Nostra (in Italy, the article la is not used when referring to Cosa Nostra). Italian investigators initially did not take the term seriously, believing it was used only by [citation needed] the American Mafia . . In 1984, the Mafia turncoatTommaso Buscetta revealed to the anti[12] mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone that the term was used by the Sicilian Mafia as well. Buscetta dismissed the word "mafia" as a mere literary creation. Other defectors, such as Antonino Calderone and Salvatore Contorno, confirmed the use of Cosa Nostra to describe the [13] Mafia. Mafiosi introduce known members to each other as belonging to cosa nostra ("our thing") or la stessa cosa ("the same thing"), meaning "he is the same thing, a mafioso, as you". The Sicilian Mafia has used other names to describe itself throughout its history, such as "The Honoured Society". Mafiosi are known among themselves as "men of honour" or "men of respect".

Cosa Nostra should not be confused with other mafia-type organizations in Italy such as the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria, the Camorra in Campania, or the Sacra Corona Unita in Apulia.

History[edit]
The genesis of Cosa Nostra is hard to trace because mafiosi are very secretive and do not keep historical records of their own. In fact, they have been known to spread deliberate lies about their [14] past, and sometimes come to believe in their own myths.

Post-feudal Sicily[edit]
Modern scholars believe that its seeds were planted in the upheaval of Sicily's transition out of feudalism in 1812 and its later annexation by mainland Italy in 1860. Under feudalism, the nobility owned most of the land and enforced law and order through their private armies. After 1812, the feudal barons steadily sold off or rented their lands to private citizens. Primogeniture was abolished, land could no longer be seized to settle debts, and one fifth of the land was to become private [15] property of the peasants. The oldest reference to Mafia groups in Sicily dates back to 1838, in a report of the General Prosecutor of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, although the term "mafia" was not used. The report described the phenomenon rather than the name: "In many villages, there are unions or fraternities kinds of sects which are called partiti, with no political colour or goal, with [8][16][17] no meeting places, and with no other bond but that of dependency on a chief."

The Brigand family, 19th century

After Italy annexed Sicily in 1860, it redistributed a large share of public and church land to private [18] citizens. The result was a huge boom in landowners: from 2,000 in 1812 to 20,000 by 1861. The nobles also released their private armies to let the state take over the task of law enforcement. However, the authorities were incapable of properly enforcing property rights and contracts, largely [19] due to their inexperience with free market capitalism. Lack of manpower was also a problem: there were often less than 350 active policemen for the entire island. Some towns did not have any permanent police force, only visited every few months by some troops to collect malcontents, [20] leaving criminals to operate with impunity from the law in the interim. With more property owners came more disputes that needed settling, contracts that needed enforcing, and properties that

needed protecting. Because the authorities were undermanned and unreliable, property owners turned to extralegal arbitrators and protectors. These extralegal protectors would eventually organize themselves into the first Mafia clans. Banditry was a serious problem at the time. Rising food prices, the loss of public and church [15] lands, and the loss of feudal common rights pushed many desperate peasants to banditry. With no police to call upon, local elites in countryside towns recruited young men into "companies-atarms" to hunt down thieves and negotiate the return of stolen property, in exchange for a pardon for [21] the thieves and a fee from the victims. These companies-at-arms were often made up of former [18] bandits and criminals, usually the most skilled and violent of them. Whilst this saved communities the trouble of training their own policemen, this may have made the companies-at-arms more [18] inclined to collude with their former brethren rather than destroy them. There was little Mafia activity in the eastern half of Sicily. This did not mean there was little violence; [21] the most violent conflicts over land took place in the east, but they did not involve mafiosi. In the east, the ruling elites were more cohesive and active during the transition from feudalism to capitalism. They maintained their large stables of enforcers, and were able to absorb or suppress [22] any emerging violent groups. Furthermore, the land in the east was generally divided into a smaller number of large estates, so there were fewer landowners and their large estates often required its guardians to patrol it full-time. This meant that guardians of such estates tended to be [23] bound to a single employer, giving them little autonomy or leverage to demand high payments. Mafia activity was most prevalent in the most prosperous areas of western Sicily, especially Palermo, where the dense concentrations of landowners and merchants offered ample opportunities for protection racketeering and extortion. There, the estates tended to be smaller than in the east, and thus did not require the total, round-the-clock attention of a protector. A protector could thus afford to serve multiple clients, giving him greater independence. The greater number of [23] clients demanding protection also allowed him to charge high prices. The landowners in this region were also frequently absent and could not watch over their properties should the mafioso [24] withdraw protection, further increasing his bargaining power. The lucrative citrus orchards around Palermo were a favorite target of extortionists and protection racketeers, as they had a fragile production system that made them quite vulnerable to [25] sabotage. Mafia clans forced landowners to hire their members as custodians by scaring away [26] unaffiliated applicants. Cattle ranchers were also very vulnerable to thieves, and so they too needed mafioso protection. In 1864, Niccol Turrisi Colonna, leader of the Palermo National Guard, wrote of a "sect of thieves" that operated across Sicily. This "sect" was mostly rural, composed of cattle thieves, smugglers, [16][27] wealthy farmers and their guards. The sect made "affiliates every day of the brightest young people coming from the rural class, of the guardians of the fields in the Palermitan countryside, and of the large number of smugglers; a sect which gives and receives protection to and from certain men who make a living on traffic and internal commerce. It is a sect with little or no fear of public [28] bodies, because its members believe that they can easily elude this." It had special signals to recognize each other, offered protection services, scorned the law and had a code of loyalty and [27][29] non-interaction with the police known as umirt("humility"). Colonna warned in his report that the Italian government's brutal and clumsy attempts to crush unlawfulness only made the problem worse by alienating the populace. An 1865 dispatch from the prefect of Palermo to Rome first
[18]

officially described the phenomenon as a "Mafia". [31] known description of the familiarinitiation ritual.

[7][30]

An 1876 police report makes the earliest

1900 map of Mafia presence in Sicily. Towns with Mafia activity are marked as red dots. The Mafia operated mostly in the west, in areas of rich agricultural productivity.

Mafiosi meddled in politics early on, bullying voters into voting for candidates they favoured. At this period in history, only a small fraction of the Sicilian population could vote, so a single mafia boss could control a sizeable chunk of the electorate and thus wield considerable political [32] leverage. Mafiosi used their allies in government to avoid prosecution as well as persecute less well-connected rivals. The highly fragmented and shaky Italian political system allowed cliques of [12] Mafia-friendly politicians to exert a lot of influence. In a series of reports between 1898 and 1900, Ermanno Sangiorgi, the police chief of Palermo, identified 670 mafiosi belonging to eight Mafia clans that went through alternating phases of [33] cooperation and conflict. The report mentioned initiation rituals and codes of conduct, as well as criminal activities that included counterfeiting, ransom kidnappings, robbery, murder and witness intimidation. The Mafia also maintained funds to support the families of imprisoned members and [34] pay defense lawyers.

Fascist suppression[edit]
In 1925, Benito Mussolini initiated a campaign to destroy the Mafia and assert Fascist control over Sicilian life. The Mafia threatened and undermined his power in Sicily, and a successful campaign [35] would strengthen him as the new leader, legitimising and empowering his rule. Not only would this be a great propaganda coup for Fascism, but it would also provide an excuse to suppress his political opponents on the island, since many Sicilian politicians had Mafia links. As prime minister, he visited Sicily in May 1924 and passed through Piana dei Greci where he was received by the mayor, Mafia boss Francesco Cuccia. At some point Cuccia expressed surprise at Mussolinis police escort and whispered in his ear: "You are with me, you are under my protection. What do you need all these cops for?" After Mussolini rejected Cuccia's offer of protection, Cuccia instructed the townsfolk to not attend Mussolini's speech. Mussolini felt humiliated and [36][37] outraged. Cuccias careless remark has passed into history as the catalyst for Mussolinis war on the Mafia. When Mussolini firmly established his power in January 1925, he appointed Cesare Mori as the [36] Prefect of Palermo in October 1925 and granted him special powers to fight the Mafia. Mori formed a small army of policemen, carabinieri and militiamen, which went from town to town, rounding up suspects. To force suspects to surrender, they would take their families hostage, sell

off their property, or publicly slaughter their livestock. By 1928, over 11,000 suspects were [40] arrested. Confessions were sometimes extracted through beatings and torture. Some mafiosi [41] who had been on the losing end of Mafia feuds voluntarily cooperated with prosecutors, perhaps as a way of obtaining protection and revenge. Charges of Mafia association were typically leveled at poor peasants and gabellotti (farm leaseholders), but were avoided when dealing with major [42] [43][44] landowners. Many were tried en masse. More than 1,200 were convicted and [45] [46] imprisoned, and many others were internally exiled without trial. Mori's campaign ended in June 1929 when Mussolini recalled him to Rome. Although he did not permanently crush the Mafia as the Fascist press proclaimed, his campaign was nonetheless very successful at suppressing it. As the Mafia informant Antonino Calderone reminisced: "The music changed. Mafiosi had a hard life. [...] After the war the mafia hardly existed anymore. The Sicilian [46] Families had all been broken up." Sicily's murder rate sharply declined. Landowners were able to raise the legal rents on their [41] lands; sometimes as much as ten-thousandfold. Many mafiosi fled to the United States. Among these were Carlo Gambino andJoseph Bonanno, who would go on to become powerful Mafia bosses in New York City.
[47]

[38]

[39]

Post-Fascist revival[edit]
In 1943, nearly half a million Allied troops invaded Sicily. Crime soared in the upheaval and chaos. [12] Many inmates escaped from their prisons, banditry returned and the black market thrived. During [48] the first six months of Allied occupation, party politics in Sicily were banned. Most institutions, [49] with the exception of the police and carabinieri, were destroyed, and the American occupiers had to build a new order from scratch. As Fascist mayors were deposed, the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT) simply appointed replacements. Many turned out to be mafiosi, [50][51] such asCalogero Vizzini and Giuseppe Genco Russo. They could easily present themselves [52] as political dissidents, and their anti-communist position gave them additional credibility. Mafia [53] bosses reformed their clans, absorbing some of the marauding bandits into their ranks. The changing economic landscape of Sicily would shift the Mafia's power base from rural to the urban areas. The Minister of Agriculture a communist pushed for reforms in which peasants were to get larger shares of produce, be allowed to form cooperatives and take over badly used land, and remove the system by which leaseholders (known as "gabelloti") could rent land from [54] landowners for their own short-term use. Owners of especially large estates were to be forced to sell off some of their land. The Mafia, which had connections to many landowners, murdered many socialist reformers. The most notorious attack was the Portella della Ginestra massacre, when 11 persons were killed and 33 wounded during May Day celebrations on May 1, 1947. The bloodbath was perpetrated by the bandit Salvatore Giuliano who was possibly backed by local [55][56] Mafia bosses. In the end, though, they couldn't stop the process, and many landowners chose [57] to sell their land to mafiosi, who offered more money than the government. In the 1950s, a crackdown in the United States on drug trafficking led to the imprisonment of many American mafiosi. Furthermore, Cuba, a major hub for drug smuggling, fell to Fidel Castro. This prompted the American mafia bossJoseph Bonanno to return to Sicily in 1957 to franchise out his heroinoperations to the Sicilian clans. Anticipating rivalries for the lucrative American drug [58] market, he negotiated the establishment of a Sicilian Mafia Commissionto mediate disputes.

Sack of Palermo[edit]
Main article: Sack of Palermo The post-war period saw a huge building boom in Palermo. Allied bombing inWorld War II had left [59] more than 14,000 people homeless, and migrants were pouring in from the countryside, so there was a huge demand for new homes. Much of this construction was subsidized by public money. In 1956, two Mafia-connected officials, Vito Ciancimino and Salvatore Lima, took control of Palermo's Office of Public Works. Between 1959 and 1963, about 80 percent of building permits were given to just five people, none of whom represented major construction firms and were probably Mafia [60] frontmen. Construction companies unconnected with the Mafia were forced to pay protection money. Many buildings were illegally constructed before the city's planning was finalized. Mafiosi scared off anyone who dared to question the illegal building. The result of this unregulated building was the demolition of many beautiful historic buildings and the erection of apartment blocks, many of which were not up to standard. Mafia organizations entirely control the building sector in Palermo the quarries where aggregates are mined, site clearance firms, cement plants, metal depots for the construction industry, wholesalers for sanitary fixtures, and so on. [61] Giovanni Falcone, 1982

First Mafia War[edit]

Main article: Ciaculli massacre The First Mafia War was the first high-profile conflict between Mafia clans in post-war Italy (the Sicilian Mafia has a long history of violent rivalries). In 1962, the mafia boss Cesare Manzella organized a drug shipment to America with the help of two Sicilian clans, the Grecos and the La Barberas. Manzella entrusted another boss, Calcedonio Di Pisa, to handle the heroin. When the shipment arrived in America, however, the American buyers claimed some heroin was missing, and paid Di Pisa a commensurately lower sum. Di Pisa accused the Americans of defrauding him, while the La Barberas accused Di Pisa of embezzling the missing heroin. The Sicilian Mafia Commission sided with Di Pisa, to the open anger of the La Barberas. [62] The La Barberas murdered Di Pisa and Manzella, triggering a war. Many non-mafiosi were killed in the crossfire. In April 1963, several bystanders were wounded [63] during a shootout in Palermo. In May, Angelo La Barberasurvived a murder attempt in Milan. In June, six military officers and a policeman in Ciaculli were killed while trying to dispose of a car bomb. These incidents provoked national outrage and a crackdown in which nearly 2,000 arrests were made. Mafia activity fell as clans disbanded and mafiosi went into hiding. The Sicilian Mafia [64] Commission was dissolved; it would not reform until 1969. 117 suspects were put on trial in 1968, but most were acquitte