Omertà
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Omertà is a popular attitude, common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations like the Mafia, 'Ndrangheta, and Camorra are strong. A common definition is the "code of silence".
Omertà implies “the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or reliance on its services, even when one has been victim of a crime.”[1] Even if somebody is convicted for a crime he has not committed, he is supposed to serve the sentence without giving the police any information about the real criminal. Within Mafia culture, breaking the oath of omertà is punishable by death.
A common misconception is that the Mafia created or instituted omertà. In fact, the code was adopted by Sicilians long before the emergence of Cosa Nostra (some observers date it in the 16th century as a way of opposing Spanish rule.[2]) As noted by Harvard anthropologist, Michael Herzfeld, it is also deeply rooted in rural Crete, Greece.[3]
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[edit] Origin
The origin of the word is often traced to the Spanish word hombredad, meaning manliness, through the Sicilian word omu for man. According to a different theory, the word comes from Latin humilitas (humility), which became umirtà and then finally omertà in some southern Italian dialects.[4]
Omertà is a code of silence, according to one of the first Mafia researchers Antonio Cutrera, a former officer of public security, that seals lips of men even in their own defense and even when the accused is innocent of charged crimes. Cutrera quoted a native saying first uttered (so goes the legend) by a wounded man to his assailant: “If I live, I’ll kill you. If I die, I forgive you.”[5]
The suspicion of being a “stool pigeon”, a cascittuni (an informant), constituted the blackest mark against manhood, according to Cutrera. Each individual had the obligation of looking out for his own interests and of proving his manliness by not appealing to legally constituted authority for redress of personal grievances. A wronged person is expected to avenge himself, or find a patron who will see to it that the job is done.
Omertà is based partly on fear and partly on idealism – it is an extreme form of loyalty and solidarity in the face of authority. One of its absolute tenets is that it is deeply demeaning and shameful to betray even one’s deadliest enemy to the authorities. Observers of the mafia debate whether omertà should best be understood as an expression of social consensus surrounding the mafia or whether it is instead a pragmatic response based primarily on fear. The point is succinctly made in a popular Sicilian proverb Cu è surdu, orbu e taci, campa cent'anni 'mpaci ("He who is deaf, blind, and silent will live a hundred years in peace").
In recent years omertà has been broken by mafiosi. Joe Valachi was one of the first persons to betray the omertà when in 1963 he publicly spoke out about the existence of the Mafia and testified before the United States Congress. In Sicily, the phenomenon of pentito (Italian he who has repented), broke omertà in the 1980s.
Among the most famous Mafia pentiti is Tommaso Buscetta, the first important state witness who helped judge Giovanni Falcone to understand the inner workings of Cosa Nostra and described the Sicilian Mafia Commission or Cupola, the leadership of the Sicilian Mafia. (A predecessor, Leonardo Vitale, who gave himself up to the police in 1973, was judged as suffering from 'mental illness' so his testimony led only to the conviction of himself and his uncle.)
In English, it is often rendered omerta, without an accent, leading to frequent mispronunciation. This grave accent in Italian and Sicilian indicates that the final a is stressed.
[edit] Other definitions
A more popular and more simplified definition of the code of omertà is: "Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without police protection is both. It is as cowardly to betray an offender to justice, even though his offences be against yourself, as it is not to avenge an injury by violence. It is dastardly and contemptible in a wounded man to betray the name of his assailant, because if he recovers, he must naturally expect to take vengeance himself."[6]
[edit] Popular culture
The American metal band Lamb of God has a song by the title of "Omerta," as does the soul-influenced American band Afghan Whigs. "Omerta" was the title of episode 9 in series 3 of the TV show Millennium, which featured an executed mafioso found alive many years later, who remained silent on how he had survived. Omerta is referred to in the Sopranos 6th season episode, "Johnny Cakes." It was brought up by Dr. Melfi's own psychiatrist, in reference to Tony Soprano remaining silent after being shot by Junior Soprano. She ultimately stated she did not believe it was due to Omerta, but "something else."
[edit] Notes
- ^ Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods, p. 109
- ^ knowital.com (not a very reliable source)
- ^ Michael Herzfeld, The Body Impolitic: Artisans and Artifice in the Global Hierarchy of Value, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2004; ISBN 0226329135]
- ^ However, the theory that omertà originates from umiltà was already discarded by the first Antimafia Commission of the Italian parliament in the 1970s, which traces the origin to omu. See: (Italian) Relazione conclusiva, Commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia in Sicilia, Rome 1976, p. 106
- ^ (Italian) Antonio Cutrera, La mafia e i mafiosi, Reber, Palermo: 1900, p. 27 (reprinted by Arnaldo Forni Editore, Sala Bolognese 1984, ISBN 88-271-2487-X), quoted in Nelli, The Business of Crime, p. 13-14
- ^ Porello, The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia, p. 23; [1]
[edit] References
- Blok, Anton (1988). The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, 1860-1960. A study of violent peasant entrepreneurs, Long Grove (Illinois): Waveland Press ISBN 0-88133-325-5 (Originally published in 1974)
- Nelli, Humbert S. (1981). The Business of Crime. Italians and Syndicate Crime in the United States, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-57132-7 (Originally published in 1976)
- Paoli, Letizia (2003). Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-515724-9
- Porrello, Rick (1995). The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia. Corn Sugar and Blood, New York: Barricade books ISBN 1-56980-058-8
- Servadio, Gaia (1976), Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day, London: Secker & Warburg ISBN 0-436-44700-2
