Subject: mafioso gangster uomo d'onore 'man of honor'
Culture: Sicilian
Setting: La Cosa Nostra, western Sicily mid-late 19thc
Event Photos
* Leeds 1974 p103
"General Govone, after leaving his military command in Sicily, reported to Parliament in December 1963 that 'there is an old, ineradicable prejudice by which Sicilians utterly despise the man who gives evidence against even the worst criminal. This attitude of silence has a special name among the common people -- omertà or submission. Fear of possible vendettas is, also, all too justified. Every day people were killed even in the centre of a town for suspicion of being in touch with the police ... This is a tremendous problem for Sicily. Since nobody will go to the ordinary courts for redress, everyone seeks his own method of self-defence.'"
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Secondary Sources
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Field Notes
