What is the Mafia?

Actually what is the Mafia?

Many people say: The Japensese Mafia (Yakuza), The south-american mafia (DrugsCartels).

But they're not even close to mafia?

Am I right?

PS: What about Capone? Many people say his 'family' (outfit) isn't mafia? That's what I thought for long time but now i'm not sure, and I tell you why: Maybe they don't have rules like: 100% Sicilian to be made (later that also changed by other mafia in America), you not even have to be Italian (am i right?). But in my opinion they ARE a Mafia.
They are not cosa nostra, thats for sure. But you have different mafia's like Camorra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita.
The Camorra and La Cosa Nostra are also very different. Maybe Capone's outfit was another kind of mafia, but they were a mafia.
So, Capone was a mafia, with other rules than the Cosa Nostra.

Another way you can look at it:
They were just a criminal organisation, and by accident the most of the members were Italian.

Juventus: Strictly speaking, "Mafia" refers to the Sicilian "men of honor" and their "families." It was extended to cover American organized crime groups with members wholly of Italian origin.
The examples you cited show the American tendency to use "Mafia" as a generic term for any organized crime group, no matter what nationality. Lazy journalists started applying "Mafia" to any organized crime groups just to help their readers envision a big, nefarious organization.
Not all "Mafias" in America are criminal. President John F. Kennedy referred to his group of close advisers as "my Irish Mafia."
Capone, as I've posted many times, was not a Mafioso, nor was his "Outfit" a Mafia group.

ive been reading former FBI agent William F. Roemers "Accardo" novel lately and in the book he seems to refer to the outfit as a part of la cosa nostra and even goes on to say that Accardo was "made" by Capone, not by the ritual ceremony of the pricking of the finger and burning of the saint but simply by stating "you'r with us now". Turnbull, do you think Roemer, though being an FBI agent at that time, may have his facts mixed up?

Goodfella, you raise a point that has always troubled me:
While it's clear that the "Outfit" under Torrio and Capone was not a Mafia family, most lawmen and writers began referring to the Chicago group as a "Mafia" family starting with Accardo. I doubt that Accardo sent away to Sicily for a "Certificate of Membership in the Mafia" for his family . In fact, I don't think there was any formal "ceremony" or "conversion" for the Chicago mob.
So, what was responsible for the changed view of lawmen and writers? Probably:
--The deaths and/or final retirements of the surviving Capone brothers and Jake (Greasy Thumb) Guzik and others who were the last remnants of the original Torrio/Capone "Outfit" (though Murray "The Camel" Humphreys stayed on as chief of labor rackets into the Seventies).
--Inclusion of Accardo on the Mafia "Commission." The Chicago "Outfit" under Capone was held in contempt by the Commission because of the law enforcement heat that Capone's flamboyant ways brought down on other organized crime groups. As noted elsewhere, the 1929 gangster convention in Atlantic City was held in part to convince Capone to take a powder until things cooled down in Chicago (he arranged to be arrested on a gun charge in Philadelphia, and went to prison for a year). Charlie Luciano was at that meeting, which can be viewed as a predecessor of the Commission. Capone did not sit on the Commission when it started in 1933, nor did his successors: Frank Nitti/Jake Guzik and then Paul (the Waiter)Ricca. I guess that when Accardo--a much more forceful and disciplined man than any of the others--became boss, the Chicago mob was invited in.
Probably that's when the writers and cops began thinking "Chicago Mafia."

ok i have to be a funny guy here(just in a good mood) ever hear of the mancow mafia? sorry about that.....Tuaca on the HOUSE.....

The mafia originated in Sicily in medievel times actually.

You see France had taken over Italy and was brutally torturing the citizens of Italy. Mny citizens decided to form there own government and rebel. MAFIA is actually an acronym for (I forgot the actual Italian words)Private Soldiers Aginst France, or something like that. The mafia had ranks just like the government and they were organized just like the kings and knights were then. The Mafia actually played a big part in ending the French rule which eventually leaded to the Italian revolution.
With France's rule gone, the mafia was not needed anymore...or were they? As many people would agree, it doesn't matter what kind of government you have, there are still going to be many things that people dont like. Well the Italian citizens, used to so much more freedom given by the mafia, decided that the mafia still can be used. The mafia became the justice for people who couldn't go to the police (or at least did not believe the police was good enough). Of course eventually it got to be much more then that.
Even though the mafia was illegal, its funny to know that without the mafia, there mite not even be an Italy right now.

And no, Capone was not a mafia man. He did a lot of things that the mafia did, but he had a gang not a family.

This is a stupid question for this board, but it makes people think. Which is worse, the Mafia or Mousillini(sp)? My senior year of HS I had a incompetant moron for a history teacher and I got in really heated arguements with him over the mafia's signifigance in history. That question always shut him up. Would we rather have Mousillini controling Italy or have people like Joey Massino?

Doubtful. Read the book Cosa Nostra: history of the Sicilian Mafia from John Dickies. He has several kinds of explanations of the word, but he DOESN'T mention this version. Of course I also read books where they used this version and others like : Morte Alle FrancIA. I think we won't know what the real one is. Just one of the big mysteries of the Cosa Nostra, it's their THING.

In staying with the guidelines of omerta, the Mafia is nothing. It is a figment of imigination. They are all legitimate businessmen with families, nothing more.

Doubtful. Read the book Cosa Nostra: history of the Sicilian Mafia from John Dickies. He has several kinds of explanations of the word, but he DOESN'T mention this version. Of course I also read books where they used this version and others like : Morte Alle FrancIA. I think we won't know what the real one is. Just one of the big mysteries of the Cosa Nostra, it's their THING. [/b][/quote]i read the same thing, that Morte Alle FrancIA meant death to Our french Oppressors.

Doubtful. Read the book Cosa Nostra: history of the Sicilian Mafia from John Dickies. He has several kinds of explanations of the word, but he DOESN'T mention this version. Of course I also read books where they used this version and others like : Morte Alle FrancIA. I think we won't know what the real one is. Just one of the big mysteries of the Cosa Nostra, it's their THING. [/b][/quote]i read the same thing, that Morte Alle FrancIA meant death to Our french Oppressors.

Actually it's
Morte Alla Francia Italia Anela


Meaning "Death to the French is Italy's cry" (Or literally: "Death to France Italy is crying", well something like that..)

This however is (probably) not the meaning or the origin of the word Mafia. Some sources say that a sicilian woman had a daughter who was raped by the french soldiers and the woman screamed: "Ma figlia! Ma figlia!" (My daughter! My daughter!), and that this incident caused the "revolution" against the french opressors, when the "families" were formed.

Another explanation of the word is that the early regimes were called "mafie" in Sicily. For some reason the called the groups of people "mafie" (allthough I have no idea what that would mean..)
"Mafie" would be the pluralis of "Mafia".