Abstract

PUCCIO-DEN, Deborah. The Sicilian Mafia: transformation to a global evil. Etnográfica [online]. 2008, vol.12, n.2, pp.377-386. ISSN 0873-6561.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which social perceptions of the Mafia have shifted over time. Initially considered as a Sicilian way of being, as an attitude, the Sicilian Mafia was subsequently viewed as a universal, global, and even religious form of Evil, to be fought in a war in which texts and images were weapons and judicial institutions constituted the battlefield. I will also explore how local powers institutionalised an “anti-Mafia religion”, using as a case-study the Festival of Santa Rosalia in Palermo. In this context, I will discuss the emergence of a new, anti-Mafia iconography and the use of a specific literary genre, that of political hagiography.

Keywords : Mafia; Sicily; politics; catholicism; Justice.

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