'Better Occasional Murders than Frequent Adulteries': Discourses on Banditry, Violence, and Sacrifice in the Mediterranean

Sant Cassia, P.

Abstract

This book chapter explores both the conditions that led to widespread violence and banditry in the Mediterranean up till the early 19th century, and the mechanisms operative to extract consent and complicity at the grassroots. It then examines how in popular imagination the brutal state execution of bandits turned them into popular figures of peasant suffering. It concludes by exploring the reasons for the polyvalence of banditry at different social levels.

Citation

Sant Cassia, P. (2006). 'Better Occasional Murders than Frequent Adulteries': Discourses on Banditry, Violence, and Sacrifice in the Mediterranean. In F. Coronil, & J. Skurski (Eds.), States of violence (219-268). University of Michigan Press

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2006
• Deposit Date: Jun 5, 2007
• Pages: 219-268
• Book Title: States of violence.
• Chapter Number: 6
• Keywords: Political economy, Violence, Sacrifice, Literature, Nationalism, Complicity, Consent.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1689825
• Publisher URL: http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=93237