From Blood Feuds to Acts of Worship: Images, Rituals, and Concepts of Power in the Sacral and Ceremonial Practice of the Mafia

Abstract

Drawing on own field research, methods of autoethnography, and available scholarly literature, I take the case of a murder that occurred long time ago during the feast of Christ the King in a town of the Agrigento province in order to examine anthropologically the many cultural and legal aspects of mafia’s sacred and ceremonial practices, including blood feuds and other traditional institutions, in the broader context of mythological representations, beliefs, and worldviews of the Sicilian population. In line with the current research approaches, I attempt to briefly outline the concept of “mafia religion”, as well as a range of cultural codes, techniques, and rituals borrowed by the mafia from religious practices and other sources, to further analyze the changes in its assertions of power in recent decades, during the intensified and church-supported national struggle against the mafia. I argue that these changes in the society have led to a certain re-ritualization of – or at least alterations in – mafia’s traditional ceremonial scenarios; for example, there can be observed a replacement of “bloody” practices by the institution of sacral worship in an attempt to adapt to the realities of modern time.