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    Mafia

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    The document discusses the origins and definitions of the term "mafia". It began as a Sicilian term with uncertain etymology, possibly from Arabic roots, and referred to criminal gangs on the island. The word entered the popular lexicon in the 19th century and came to refer more broadly to any organized criminal group that uses protection rackets and intimidation, such as the Italian-American Mafia, Russian Mafia, and others internationally. Scholars debate how broadly the term should be applied to organized crime groups worldwide.

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    Mafia

    Uploaded by

    rbnao
    247 views5 pages
    The document discusses the origins and definitions of the term "mafia". It began as a Sicilian term with uncertain etymology, possibly from Arabic roots, and referred to criminal gangs on the island. The word entered the popular lexicon in the 19th century and came to refer more broadly to any organized criminal group that uses protection rackets and intimidation, such as the Italian-American Mafia, Russian Mafia, and others internationally. Scholars debate how broadly the term should be applied to organized crime groups worldwide.

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    Mafia - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

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    The document discusses the origins and definitions of the term "mafia". It began as a Sicilian term with uncertain etymology, possibly from Arabic roots, and referred to criminal gangs on the island. The word entered the popular lexicon in the 19th century and came to refer more broadly to any organized criminal group that uses protection rackets and intimidation, such as the Italian-American Mafia, Russian Mafia, and others internationally. Scholars debate how broadly the term should be applied to organized crime groups worldwide.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    247 views5 pages

    Mafia

    Uploaded by

    rbnao
    The document discusses the origins and definitions of the term "mafia". It began as a Sicilian term with uncertain etymology, possibly from Arabic roots, and referred to criminal gangs on the island. The word entered the popular lexicon in the 19th century and came to refer more broadly to any organized criminal group that uses protection rackets and intimidation, such as the Italian-American Mafia, Russian Mafia, and others internationally. Scholars debate how broadly the term should be applied to organized crime groups worldwide.

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    of 5

    Maa

    This article is about criminal organizations commonly


    and as a result the tribes name entered the popular
    referred to as maas. For the criminal society in Sicily
    lexicon. The word maa was used to refer to the
    to which the name Maa was rst ascribed, see Sicilian
    defenders of Palermo during the Sicilian Vespers.[6]
    Maa. For the Italian American criminal organization
    often referred to as simply the Maa, see American
    Maa. For other uses, see Maa (disambiguation).
    The publics association of the word with the criminal
    secret society was perhaps inspired by the 1863 play I
    A maa is a type of organized crime syndicate whose mausi di la Vicaria (The Maosi of the Vicaria) by
    primary activities are protection racketeering, the arbi- Giuseppe Rizzotto and Gaetano Mosca. The words Maa
    tration of disputes between criminals, and the organizing and mausi are never mentioned in the play; they were
    and oversight of illegal agreements and transactions.[1] probably put in the title to add a local air. The play
    Secondary activities may be practiced such as drug- is about a Palermo prison gang with traits similar to the
    Maa: a boss, an initiation ritual, and talk of umirt"
    tracking, loan sharking and fraud.
    (omert or code of silence) and "pizzu" (a codeword for
    The term was originally applied to the Sicilian Maa, but
    extortion money).[7] The play had great success throughhas since expanded to encompass other organizations of
    out Italy. Soon after, the use of the term maa began
    similar methods and purpose, e.g. the Russian Maa,
    appearing in the Italian states early reports on the phethe Japanese Maa, the Albanian Maa or Maltese
    nomenon. The word made its rst ocial appearance in
    Maa. The term is applied informally by the press and
    1865 in a report by the prefect of Palermo, Filippo Anpublic; the criminal organizations themselves have their
    tonio Gualterio.[8]
    own terms (e.g. the Sicilian and American Maa call
    themselves Cosa Nostra, the Mexican Maa calls itself
    La Eme and the Japanese Maa calls itself yakuza).
    When used alone and without any qualier, Maa typically refers to either the Sicilian Maa or the ItalianAmerican Maa.

    2 Denitions
    A formal denition of maa can be hard to come by.
    The term was never ocially used by Sicilian maosi,
    who prefer to refer to their organization as "Cosa Nostra".
    Nevertheless, it is typically by comparison to the Sicilian
    Maa that other criminal groups earn the label. The expansion of the term has not been welcomed by all scholars. Giovanni Falcone, an anti-Maa judge murdered by
    the Sicilian Maa in 1992, objected to the conation of
    the term Maa with organized crime in general:

    Etymology

    The word maa originated in Sicily, though its origins


    are uncertain. The Sicilian adjective mausu (in Italian:
    maoso), roughly translated, means "swagger, but can
    also be translated as boldness, bravado". In reference
    to a man, mausu in 19th century Sicily was ambiguous,
    signifying a bully, arrogant but also fearless, enterprising,
    and proud, according to scholar Diego Gambetta.[2] In
    reference to a woman, however, the feminine-form adjective mausa means beautiful and attractive.

    While there was a time when people were


    reluctant to pronounce the word Maa ...
    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 Maa in descriptive
    and all-inclusive terms that make it possible to
    stack up phenomena that are indeed related to
    the eld of organized crime but that have little
    or nothing in common with the Maa.[9]
    Giovanni Falcone, 1990

    Sicily was once an Islamic emirate, therefore maa


    might have Arabic roots. Possible Arabic roots of the
    word include:
    mahyas ( = )aggressive boasting, bragging
    marfud ( = )rejected
    mu'afa = safety, protection[3]
    Ma r = the name of an Arab tribe[4] that ruled
    Palermo.[5] The local peasants imitated these Arabs
    1

    2.1

    3 INTERNATIONAL

    Maas as private protection rms

    American Maa

    Sicilian Maa
    Scholars such as Diego Gambetta[10] and Leopoldo
    Franchetti have characterized the Sicilian Maa as a cartel of private protection rms, whose primary business
    3.1 Italy
    is protection racketeering: they use their fearsome reputation for violence to deter people from swindling, robOther Italian criminal organizations include:
    bing, or competing with those who pay them for protection. For many businessmen in Sicily, they provide an
    Camorra, operating in the region of Campania
    essential service when they cannot rely on the police and
    judiciary to enforce their contracts and protect their prop 'Ndrangheta in Calabria
    erties from thieves (this is often because they are engaged
    in black market deals). Scholars have observed that many
    Sacra Corona Unita in Apulia
    other societies around the world have criminal organiza Stidda and Cosa Nostra in Sicily
    tions of their own that provide essentially the same protection service through similar methods.
    For instance, in Russia after the collapse of Communism, 3.2 Other countries
    the state security system had all but collapsed, forcing
    businessmen to hire criminal gangs to enforce their con Aboriginal-based organized crime
    tracts and protect their properties from thieves. These
    African-American gangs, including
    gangs are popularly called the Russian Maa by foreigners, but they prefer to go by the term "krysha".
    Gangster Disciples
    With the [Russian] state in collapse and
    the security forces overwhelmed and unable to
    police contract law, [...] cooperating with the
    criminal culture was the only option. [...] most
    businessmen had to nd themselves a reliable
    krysha under the leadership of an eective
    vor.
    excerpt from McMaa by Misha Glenny.[11]

    Crips
    Bloods
    Albanian maa
    Armenian maa
    Aryan Brotherhood
    Asian-American gangs, including

    2.2

    Maa-type organizations under Italian


    law

    In Italy, the term associazione di tipo Maoso (Maatype organisation) is used to clearly distinguish the
    uniquely Sicilian Maa from other criminal organisations that are structured like the Sicilian Maa, such
    as the Camorra, the 'Ndrangheta and the Sacra Corona
    Unita.[12] Article 416-bis of the Italian Penal Code, under
    which all criminal organisations are prosecuted, denes
    an association as being of Maa-type nature when those
    belonging to the association exploit the potential for intimidation which their membership gives them, and the
    compliance and omert which membership entails and
    which lead to the committing of crimes, the direct or indirect assumption of management or control of nancial
    activities, concessions, permissions, enterprises and public services for the purpose of deriving prot or wrongful
    advantages for themselves or others.[13][14]

    International

    Maa-proper can refer to either:

    Born To Kill
    Tiny Rascal gang
    Menace of Destruction
    Sons of Samoa
    Azeri maa
    Brazilian criminal organizations, including
    Primeiro Comando da Capital
    Comando Vermelho
    British crime rms, including
    Liverpool maa
    Clerkenwell crime syndicate
    Arif crime family
    Thompson crime family
    Bulgarian maa
    Cape Verdean organized crime
    Chaldean maa
    Chechen maa

    3
    Colombian neo-paramilitary organized crime, including
    The Oce of Envigado
    Los Rastrojos
    Los Urabenos
    Corsican maa

    Texas Syndicate
    Barrio Azteca
    Nigerian maa
    No Limit Soldiers
    Outlaw motorcycle gangs, including

    Cuban maa

    Hells Angels MC

    Dixie Maa

    Outlaws MC

    Dutch Penose, including


    Delta crime syndicate
    Dutch-Moroccan organized crime
    Moluccan Kajahatan
    French Milieu, such as
    Hornec gang

    Bandidos MC
    Pagans MC
    Mongols MC
    Satudarah MC
    Pakistani maa
    Russian maa, including

    Georgian maa

    Solntsevskaya Bratva

    Greek maa

    Tambov Gang

    Hispanic-American gangs, including


    Latin Kings
    etas
    Trinitarios
    Mara Salvatrucha
    Indian maa
    Irish Mob
    Israeli maa, including
    Abergil crime family
    Odessa maa

    Serbian maa
    The Company
    Tongs
    Triads,[15] including
    14K Triad
    Sun Yee On
    Bamboo Union
    Turkish and Kurdish maa
    VVT

    North Koreas illicit activities

    Yakuza

    Kkangpae

    Yardies

    Lebanese crime families, including

    Zoe Pound

    Al-Zein Clan
    Miri-Clan
    Mexican cartels, including
    Sinaloa Cartel
    Los Zetas
    Jurez Cartel
    Gulf Cartel
    Mexican-American prison gangs, including
    Mexican Maa
    Nuestra Familia

    Swedish Maa
    Original Gangsters

    4 References
    [1] Gambetta 2009
    [2] This etymology is based on the books Maoso by Gaia
    Servadio; The Sicilian Maa by Diego Gambetta; and
    Cosa Nostra by John Dickie (see Books below).
    [3] Gambetta, The Sicilian Maa. pp. 259-261.

    [4] John Follain (8 Jun 2009). The Last Godfathers. Hachette UK. ISBN 9781848942493. Even the origin of the
    word 'maa' remains obscure. Some believe its roots lie
    in the Arab domination of Sicily from 827 to 1061 and
    the Arabic word mahias (daring) or Ma r (the name of
    a Saracen tribe).
    [5] Henner Hess (1998). Maa & Maosi: Origin, Power and
    Myth. NYU Press. p. 1. ISBN 9781863331432.
    [6] Richard Lindberg (1 Aug 1998). To Serve and Collect:
    Chicago Politics and Police Corruption from the Lager Beer
    Riot to the Summerdale Scandal, 1855-1960 (illustrated
    ed.). SIU Press. p. 161. ISBN 9780809322237. The
    word Maa is a derivative of the Arabic maar, the
    name of a tribe of Arabs who settled in Palermo, Sicily
    before the Middle Ages. The Sicilian peasants adopted
    the customs of the nomadic tribe, integrating the name
    into everyday language. When the French were massacred in Palermo on Easter Sunday, 1282, the townsmen
    described their brave defenders as the Maa. In 1417
    this secret band of guerrillas absorbed another society of
    local origin, the Camorra.
    [7] Gambetta, The Sicilian Maa, p. 136.
    [8] Lupo, The History of the Maa, p. 3.
    [9] Lupo, History of the Maa, pp. 12
    [10] Diego Gambetta (1993). The Sicilian Maa: The Business
    of Private Protection
    [11] Glenny 2008
    [12] Maa and Maa-type organizations in Italy, by Umberto
    Santino, in: Albanese, Das & Verma, Organized Crime.
    World Perspectives, pp. 82-100
    [13] Seindal, Maa: money and politics in Sicily, p. 20
    [14] Art. 416-bis, codice penale - Associazione di tipo maoso
    [15] Wang, Peng (2013). The rise of the Red Maa in
    China: a case study of organised crime and corruption in
    Chongqing. Trends in Organized Crime 16 (1): 4973.
    doi:10.1007/s12117-012-9179-8.

    4.1

    Sources

    Albanese, Jay S., Dilip K. Das & Arvind Verma,


    (eds.) (2003). Organized Crime. World Perspectives,
    Prentice-Hall, ISBN 9780130481993
    Dickie, John (2007). Cosa Nostra: A History of the
    Sicilian Maa. Hodder. ISBN 978-0-340-93526-2.
    Gambetta, Diego (1993). The Sicilian Maa: The
    Business of Private Protection. Princeton University
    Press. ISBN 0-674-80742-1.
    Gambetta, Diego (2009). Codes of the Underworld.
    Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691119373.
    Glenny, Misha (2008). McMaa. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1400095124.

    REFERENCES

    Hess, Henner (1998). Maa & Maosi: Origin,


    Power, and Myth, London: Hurst & Co Publishers,
    ISBN 1-85065-500-6
    Mosca, Gaetano (2014). What is Maa. M&J,
    2014. Translation of the book Cosa la Maa,
    Giornale degli Economisti, Luglio 1901, pp. 236
    62. ISBN 979-11-85666-00-6
    Paoli, Letizia (2003). Maa Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-515724-9
    Seindal, Ren (1998). Maa: money and politics
    in Sicily, 1950-1997, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, ISBN 87-7289-455-5
    Servadio, Gaia (1976), Maoso. A history of the
    Maa from its origins to the present day, London:
    Secker & Warburg ISBN 0-436-44700-2

    Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

    5.1

    Text

    Maa Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia?oldid=672706616 Contributors: Damian Yerrick, AntonioMartin, Lexor, Wwwwolf,


    Pcb21, TUF-KAT, Geraki, Robbot, Altenmann, Alan De Smet, Bkonrad, Mckaysalisbury, Beland, Mzajac, Szajd, Mike Rosoft, Rich
    Farmbrough, Stesmo, Johnteslade, Sasquatch, Nev, Anthony Appleyard, Gargaj, Raymond, BodyTag, Wtmitchell, Guthrie, Ianblair23,
    SteinbDJ, Tariqabjotu, Megan1967, Kurzon, WadeSimMiser, DavidFarmbrough, BD2412, Rjwilmsi, Ian Lancaster, Master Thief Garrett,
    Srleer, Bgwhite, YurikBot, Carl T, Bhny, Rsrikanth05, Aeusoes1, Ezeu, Lockesdonkey, Bayerischermann, Dspradau, Nae'blis, Davehard,
    Smurfy, Katieh5584, The Raven, Schizobullet, Elonka, McGeddon, Gilliam, Skizzik, MalafayaBot, Ted87, Lenin and McCarthy, Can't
    sleep, clown will eat me, Maksim-bot, WayKurat, 16@r, Luokehao, Blakegripling ph, UncleDouggie, The Librarian, Aherunar, Neelix,
    DonCalo, Arrenlex, Fomo, Howezy, Thijs!bot, Salahx, Mojo Hand, Nick Number, Escarbot, Dan D. Ric, Barek, Giovanni Giove, Acroterion, Parsecboy, Froid, Superpiccolo, CliC, Crakkpot, ElectricValkyrie, Root7, Jamesontai, Rexparry sydney, Idioma-bot, X!, VolkovBot,
    The Duke of Waltham, DarkSword, Bdb484, Vipinhari, Nxavar, JhsBot, Miwanya, Meters, AlleborgoBot, SieBot, Andrarias, Gerakibot, Happysailor, Flyer22, Hxhbot, Cutkiller, Denisarona, Nothing444, Martarius, Hutcher, Gene93k, Metroid112, Shhac, All Hallows
    Wraith, Zulux1, Drmies, TheOldJacobite, Wikihistorian, Mr Accountable, Excirial, Addbot, Non-dropframe, Changelinglover, Pandamolesto80, Favonian, Tassedethe, GPS94, Middayexpress, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Lucas, II MusLiM HyBRiD II, AnomieBOT, Materialscientist,
    ArthurBot, Xqbot, Capricorn42, Nietzsche 2, Shadowjams, Unicycledude42, MeDrewNotYou, Kohlman7, Varunkrishnan89, Maanow,
    Fixer88, White Shadows, Brian the Editor, Mean as custard, Mmwenyenchi, Danthelad123, Bob140, John of Reading, Racerx11, Winner
    42, Geo4252, Vicboy, ZroBot, KazekageTR, Proto84, JXXXE, Mcc1789, JoeySylarDiener, ClueBot NG, Gareth Grith-Jones, A520,
    Begbiepwns, Rezabot, Widr, Thatemooverthere, Maa-research, DPL bot, Stmldn, Jaqeli, Hansen Sebastian, JYBot, Rosso Veneziano,
    IsraphelMac, Codename Lisa, Hmainsbot1, Mogism, 93, Gabby Merger, Madreterra, Theryx7, EvergreenFir, Afghanwrites, JosephSpiral,
    Sabindrew, Poepkop, BethNaught, Valentinois26, The Honestpedia, Carlee123412341234, Tuman1123, Mendsari88, Organo genitouretral, TranquilHope, The 5th Doctor, Iwilsonp, Japanchinakoreataiwanindianepalqatar, Anoopgp123, Melissa12j, Tomasso0316, Andreas
    Rubix, KasparBot, Bugsysiegal, Cornhead, Franklingod, Coxx66, Lewisburton1607, Dbryant87, Tylermartins and Anonymous: 147

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    5.3

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