Social Banditry

Mexico's cartels are significant social, political, and economic actors. The extent of their socioeconomic and political influence is the subject of great debate yet, as their recent response to natural disaster demonstrates, they are influencing the populace in new and diverse ways. In the aftermath of recent hurricanes (i.e., Hurricanes Manuel and Ingrid) in Mexico cartels provided " humanitarian " aid to the victims of the storms. As a result they positioned themselves in a positive light in the communities they assisted. This strategic note documents and assesses this cartel foray into the provision of social goods—specifically " humanitarian aid. " Cartel Disaster Relief On 22 September 2013, Proceso reported that the Gulf Cartel (Cártel del Golfo/CDG) dispensed tons of supplies to persons impacted by Hurricane Ingrid in Tamaulipas. In this report, it was noted that the CDG posted a video on YouTube claiming that " they help because they have a heart " (" Si ayuden es por que tienen corazon ").[1] The video—punctuated by a " rap style corrido " voice over—shows pickup trucks loaded with supplies: food, water, rice, masa, milk, that are then dispensed to the affected community.[2] The ability for the cartel to mobilize and distribute groceries and aid without government interdiction raises questions about state capacity in the contested disaster zone. Questions about state capacity and cartel intentions were raised on social media in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Tweets became the common method of sharing disaster situation reports. Social media also became a way for the CDG to publicize its relief efforts. As one report noted: The most interesting twist came Sunday when an Internet video claiming to be from the Gulf Cartel began circulating through social media. The video shows several pickup trucks filled with food items being driven across the state and through dirt roads where the food was delivered to the communities. In the video, a written message claiming to be from the Gulf Cartel says that the organization is from Tamaulipas and cares for the people of the state.[3] The aid to the town of Aldama provided by the CDG was publicized on social media and widely reported

This paper challenges the traditional ideas of villainy through its exploration of Ned Kelly. In 1878, Ned Kelly led an ambush that saw the killing of three police officers. Two years - and several crimes - later he was hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol. There is, however, an historical amnesia concerning Kelly that
has allowed him to be rewritten, in popular history at least, as a noble villain. Cinematic interpretations of Kelly’s life have contributed to this amnesia. This paper also presents Ned Kelly’s own voice, as heard in the Jerilderie Letter, which
was once suppressed and censored by the printed press.

This chapter discusses the rise to prominence of Ahmad Hamad al-Mahmud Abu Jilda, a bandit from Tammun, Palestine, in the early 1930s. It explores the popularity of Abu Jilda as a figure of resistance to British Mandate rule and sees in his actions and the discourse around him a foreshadowing the widespread 1936-1939 Revolt. In so doing, it addresses questions of popular versus elite nationalism in Mandate Palestine.

Contemporary street art is often discussed in media as a phenomenon undistinguished from graffiti. This oversimplification is rather misleading. Already in the 1980s, in connection to the mainstream success of the graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, concerns were raised about the need for a new category: post-graffiti. Typically, for the terms with such a prefix, there is a consensus that post-graffiti in principle differs from graffiti, but there is no consensus concerning the definition of the new category itself.
In following discussion, I propose the concept of social banditry to describe contemporary street art (aka post-graffiti).

(Forthcoming) This paper analyses the importance of Pirate English in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through lenses of contemporary linguistic theories and retrospective research provided by studies in Creole cultures of Caribbean. Since, history and historiography of the Golden of the Piracy are predominantly focused on maritime, radical, military or colonial context; this works to enhance and enrich corpus of larger pirate studies with a linguistic theory analysis of a crucial element holding pirate crewmen together - Pirate English. The general expectation of this research is related to the idea that historically marginalised importance of Pirate English does not automatically discourage us from the exploration of this phenomenon from the linguistics point of views. Furthermore, Pirate English should not be overlooked by contemporary studies dealing with semiotic landscape, symbolism and communication, since it can provide us with much needed historical evidence about diverse maritime speech community and how their use of the language reflected the diversity of its members. Glossary of 17th/18th nautical terms will be provided. Pirate English and its analysis is based on contemporary sources dealing with "mediation of language" (Michael Stubbs), "semiotic landscape" (Kress & Leuwen), "communication and cognition" (Sperber & Wilson). Relevant scholars and publications related to the problematics of the Creole culture and linguistics such as John Holm or Peter Bekker will be discussed as well. Hence, the paper should produce a synthesis of contemporary linguistic concepts applied judiciously to historical records and explored through relevant socio-historical or cultural studies.

The book is published at the initiative of Tignale Municipality (Brescia) to commemorate the 4th centenary of the cruel battle which took place on the 17th August 1617 in the mountains above. A day which was soon recorded in the majestic ex-voto describing the death of the great outlaw Giovanni Beatrice (Zanzanù), which occurred between the two streams in the Monible valley, and today preserved in the Madonna di Montecastello sanctuary-

Il libro è pubblicato su iniziativa del comune di Tignale (Brescia) per ricordare il quarto centenario della cruenta battaglia svoltasi il 17 agosto 1617 nei monti soprastanti. Un giorno che, di lì a poco, venne ricordato nel maestoso ex-voto ancor oggi esistente nel santuario della Madonna di Montecastello, in cui è descritta la morte del grande fuorilegge Giovanni Beatrice (Zanzanù), avvenuta tra i due ruscelli che scendono lungo la valle delle Monible.

Bevat beschrijving van de veroordeelde bokkerijders en de precieze lokatie van de galgen in de kerkdorpen Schaesberg, Rimburg, Ubach over Worms, Merkstein en Kerkrade. Teven een inleiding op het strafrecht en verhoorsysteem doorheen de afgelopen 20 eeuwen.

The story of Zanzanù is symbolically the history of the birth of  outlaw imagine in early modern age. Zanzanù firstly became a 'bandit' because he received a banishment penalty owing to the killing of a member of a rival family. But then, unable to establish a peace with his enemies, he couldn't return to his village and he followed a vengeance for his father killing. Survived to several ambushes of his enemies and of bounty killers who chased him, he soon entered the  dimension of myth until he died the 17th of august 1617 in a bloody battle which lasted a full day.

Es necesario extender la lectura sobre el bandolerismo a las formas de mediación y negociación entre actores sociales e institucionales, a la lucha entre «parcialidades», más allá del estudio de los «salteadores de camino». Los intentos de intervención de la Corona en esos mecanismos de «justicia negociada», poco exitosos, demuestran que la historia de la Sicilia moderna no puede leerse según una dirección unívoca: por un lado, la Monarquía en el camino hacia el absolutismo y, por otro, la periferia y las comunidades como focos de resistencia contra el Rey. Según esa mirada, el reino de Sicilia a caballo de los siglos XVI y XVII pone en discusión tópicos y aproximaciones historiográficas consolidadas: desde la construcción del Estado moderno hasta la dialéctica entre centro y periferias, pasando por la misma representación de una Justicia ciega, ya que ésta no era la adecuada para una realidad que pretendía acogerse a otra justicia, aquella de los ajustes de cuenta y paces privadas. Se trata por tanto de un enfoque destinado, sin duda, a abrir un debate entre los especialistas y a llamar la atención de apasionados lectores de la Historia: ¿Sicilia constituye la excepción en el panorama mediterráneo o esa estereotipada excepción podría revelarse parecida, por lo menos, a otros territorios de la Monarquía hispánica?

A bi-lingual article about Paphos during the 19th and 20th century in terms of the socio-cultural developments, the pluralism and diversity of its population.

Issues like the "crypto-christians" "Linobambaki", the reception of a past revolt, life in the bazaar and the social bandits "Hasampoulia" are a few of the issues under investigation.

The Greek article can be found between pages 56-65 and the English version between pages 88-96.

Bandits in the Ottoman Empire were mostly located in regions far away from the capital where the state authority was limited. In regions like Ottoman Kurdistan where the geography is dominated by mountains and the society is based on tribal system, the banditry was accepted by the state and society as a part of the daily life. Like the inhabitants of the empire, the outsiders, especially the Western travelers, recognized the banditry as part of the daily life in this region and tried to deal with this in different ways. Some perceived this as a dreadful situation, some as a skillfully performed métier, some as a rule and procedure of the region, some as a part of the character of people in Kurdistan, whereas some others as the only means of livelihood. Crossing their path or not, Western travelers have narrated stories of bandits with some wit and sensation in their travelogues and made the voice of these groups, who inhabited in the isolated corners of the empire, heard.

Öz:
Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda şakiler merkezden uzak ve devlet otoritesinin sınırlı olduğu bölgelerde yoğunlaşmıştır. Osmanlı Kürdistan’ı gibi coğrafyanın dağlık ve toplumsal düzenin aşiret temelli olduğu yerlerde eşkıyalık devlet ve toplum tarafından düzenin bir parçası olarak kabul görmüştür. İmparatorluğun içindekiler kadar dışından gelen Batılı seyyahlar da bu durumu bölgenin düzeni olarak kabul etmiş ve farklı yöntemlerle bununla baş etmeye çalış- mışlardır. Kimisi bunu korkunç bir durum, kimisi ustaca icra edilen bir meslek, kimisi bölge- nin kanunu ve raconu, kimisi Kürdistan’da yaşayanların kişiliğinin bir parçası, kimisi ise yegane geçim kaynağı olarak görmüştür. Eşkıyalarla yolları kesişsin veya kesişmesin Batılı seyyahlar bir şekilde onların hikâyelerini, biraz da mizah ve heyecan katarak, seyahatnamele- rinde aktarmış ve imparatorluğun izole olmuş bölgelerindeki bu toplulukların sesini duyulur hale getirmişlerdir.

Banditry in 19 th century Romania, as in all early modern societies, is quite a frequent phenomenon. Traditionally called haiduks, the men that resorted to robbery in the era are the subject of various historical accounts but also of a rather rich popular culture, especially in the form of folk balladry that celebrates their exploits. Usually analyzed in 'class struggle' terms by most Romanian historians and folklorists, these haiduk ballads were interpreted as manifestations of peasant discontent and social protest. However, on a careful inspection, these folksongs rarely, if ever, paint such well-defined bandit portraits, quite frequently the outlaws in these ballads being favorably depicted as robbing those closer to their social status. In this paper, I argue in favor of a more sociological interpretation of such balladry that accounts for these discrepancies. Instead of seeing them as expressions of class tensions, these folksongs should rather be regarded as indicators of a delinquent subculture (or subcultures). The main assumption of this hypothesis, as subcultural theories developed by criminologists in the past century maintain, is that such subcultures elaborate distinct lifeways that celebrate, justify and encourage delinquent behavior. Independently of the social status of the victims and the purpose of the robberies that the bandits perform, the ballads that sing their deeds are almost always favorable to them. This is because the production of the folklore around the bandit is rooted in
the very same subcultural milieu where he originates from. However, when in conflict with other distinct segments of society that also employ folklore as the social expression of their lives, bandits are often represented as hostile and threatening to the values of such groups.

La breve e lunga esistenza di Giovanni Beatrice fu contraddistinta da fasi che, in successione, possono essere considerate paradigmatiche nella costruzione del mito del fuorilegge. La prima, caratterizzata dalla serie cruenta di vendette si concluse nel 1607 con l’uccisione dello storico nemico Riccobon Sette. Pur personalmente colpitoda numerose sentenze di bando, in realtà Giovanni Beatrice si era sempre mosso all’interno della cosiddetta banda Zanoni, guidata dallo zio Giovan Francesco.
L’agguato di Riva, nel febbraio del 1609, lo isolò e lo spinse probabilmente a
cercare un rifugio e delle protezioni che lo allontanarono dai luoghi in cui era nato e vissuto; anche se, tra il 1610 e il 1611, di seguito all’abbattimento della sua casa di Gargnano, compì gli ultimi e clamorosi atti di sfida.
Gli anni successivi al febbraio del 1609 sono però comprensibili solo se vengono considerati alla luce di quanto si era svolto nel periodo che va dal giugno del 1607, contrassegnato dall’uccisione di Riccobon Sette, all’agguato notturno da cui Giovanni Beatrice riuscì a sfuggire tuffandosi nelle acque del lago dall’imbarcazione che si stava avvicinando a Riva del Garda. Un periodo breve, ma intenso, durante il quale la banda Zanoni si mosse spavaldamente sul bacino del lago dedicandosi apertamente all’attività di contrabbando, ma anche contrapponendosi a irriducibili e pericolosi nemici. Nel corso di quei diciannove mesi l’azione repressiva delle istituzioni veneziane contribuì all’affermazione di una nuova narrazione, che fu probabilmente decisiva nel determinare non solamente il sanguinoso agguato di Riva, ma pure la successiva biografia del bandito Giovanni Beatrice. Una biografia che,
entrando nella dimensione del mito, sarebbe stata successivamente raccontata avvalendosi di un codice interpretativo complesso e contraddittorio

Aside from a few exceptional works, studies on the subject of the Ottoman Special Organization (SO, Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa) are marred by confusing, vague, and inconsistent sets of arguments and assumptions. This may be attributed to certain methodological and linguistic shortcomings of particular studies and a general laziness in the use of existing primary and secondary sources. It is also an outcome of the degree to which contemporary political and ideological currents and concerns colour the nature of the historical inquiry into the subject. Based on a comprehensive and systematic critical reading of existing literature in the light of certain sets of hitherto unused archival material, the present study aims to re-open to discussion such historiographical problems both by revisiting the most speculative, and well-trodden, research topics in the literature, such as the very nature of the organization as well as its administrative features, and offering insights into the potential(s) of certain little-explored Turkish archives.

La figura del cangaceiro, el bandido característico del Nordeste de Brasil, ha concitado un sostenido interés en los estudios históricos y sociales. Su ubicación central en la cultura de la región nordestina lo constituye como un arquetipo sobre el cual se superponen interpretaciones polémicas y contrapuestas representaciones. Las particulares relaciones de los cangaceiros con el Estado, el medio campesino y las transformaciones históricas, como así también los abordajes y usos con que los intelectuales brasileños los concibieron, pueden ser fértilmente vinculados con las análogas operaciones que los letrados argentinos realizaron en torno al gaucho perseguido por la justicia, el “gaucho malo”, según lo denomina Sarmiento. Un trabajo comparativo entre ambas figuras permite analizar una serie de problemáticas vinculadas al cruce entre la cultura popular y la letrada hacia finales del siglo XIX en Argentina y Brasil, así como también al surgimiento y consolidación de las literaturas nacionales o regionales en ambos países.
El presente trabajo toma como corpus de análisis la novela Juan Moreira (1880), de Eduardo Gutiérrez, y el ensayo, Heroés e bandidos. Os cangaceiros de Nordeste (1917), de Gustavo Barroso, texto que concluye con un extenso estudio sobre la figura de Antonio Silvino, llamado el “gobernador del sertón”. Se plantean como ejes de la investigación las estrategias narrativas y argumentales sobre las que ambos escritores representan a los dos bandidos populares, retomando tradiciones previas y reformulándolas desde nuevas matrices genéricas.

Widely used in all ages in diverse political structures, the penalty of banishment takes on great importance starting from the late middle ages, both as an arm of political struggle (so-called political banishment) and as an instrument of social control used in defence of community order and values, and also to facilitate the resolution of conflicts between families in competition for honour and the management of economic resources. It was, therefore, a penalty that interacted with judiciary trial rites and that reflected the heteronomous medieval constitutional system, characterized almost everywhere by a dense network of jurisdictions, each of which was endowed with its own autonomy, even if moral, religious and political values were largely shared. Many statutes of the subject cities not only provided that bandits could be killed with impunity by anyone, but also that they could win their freedom by killing each other. This was a norm aimed to assure respect for the periods of truce needed by local judicial institutions and conflicting families to lessen internal tensions and start peace negotiations. Faced by a serious situation explicitly attributed to the emergence of a type of banditry considered aggressive and dangerous the Council of Ten took firmly into its own hands the complicated matter of banditry, which, though with significant interference, had for roughly two centuries been the competence of the local jurisdictions. The penalty of banishment inflicted by authority of the Council of Ten comprised all the territories of the state, going beyond traditional boundaries, and was made more effective by the concession of bounties, and above all by the granting of so-called voci liberar bandito. The arrest or killing of a bandit was awarded with the acquisition of a voce that could be used by the person directly interested, or could be passed on to others, who could in turn ask for the liberation of another bandit. In this way an authentic market of voci was created, and most importantly the figure of the bounty killer came into being. The new legislation adopted against banditry at the end of the century created a short circuit between the vendetta system and traditional practices of mediation aimed at reaching truces and pacification. Its effectiveness could be achieved by intervening in the dynamics of local conflicts and by making use of awards and benefits to encourage informers and the involvement of communities and bounty killers.  The judiciary activity of the Council of Ten and the use of its inquisitional rites was an essential support for the repression that hinged principally on the banishment laws.

The book is published at the initiative of Tignale Municipality (Brescia) to commemorate the 4th centenary of the cruel battle which took place on the 17th August 1617 in the mountains above. A day which was soon recorded in the majestic ex-voto describing the death of the great outlaw Giovanni Beatrice (Zanzanù), which occurred between the two streams in the Monible valley, and today preserved in the Madonna di Montecastello sanctuary. Giovanni Beatrice, similarly to his uncle Giovan Francesco Beatrice
called Lima, can be considered a symbolic figure of banditry, which was widespread in many Mediterranean countries in modern history. The strong repressive actions carried out against him contributed somehow
to further foster his bandit fame, which over his lifetime had grown so much that allowed him to go down in myth. The humblest people on the Western cost of Lake Garda found in him a steady beacon.

First of all, the banishment penalty reflected the political and constitutional European polycentrism and its interrelations with a society for a long time animated by conflicts between factions and family groups. To reach a lasting peace between the opponents was indeed an essential moment of the vendetta system, as much as ensuring tranquillity and the safekeeping of the community’s values. The system was endowed with a pronounced juridical dimension and it interacted, on the constitutional level, with the role played by the courts and, in particular, trial and customary rites. These were aimed to manage conflicts between opposite groups by pulling away the one who broke social stability through banishment, if necessary.
During the Sixteenth century, a series of important social, demographic and economic problems sensibly reshaped the conception of social control and order, and the long-established management of penal justice as well. The banishment penalty, no longer embedded in its traditional constitutional dimension and harshened both in its repressive and rewarding aspects, became an efficient instrument to impose a different political legitimacy. Faced with these transformations, bandits quickly took the physiognomy of actual outlaws, painted as political opponents and, as such, to be dealt with any repressive instrument available.

(English below)

Artikkelissa tutkitaan 1860-luvulla Kainuussa ilmennyttä sosiaalista rosvoutta ja sen yhteyksiä laajempiin yhteiskunnallisiin muutoksiin. Ensiksi tarkastelen, kuinka kainuulaisen varhaisrautateollisuuden tuotannollinen romahdus ja pienen Kiveksen kylän ruukkiyhteisön purkautuminen loivat edellytykset vuosikymmenen mittaiselle rosvoilulle Kainuussa. Seuraavaksi muodostan kriittisen kuvauksen Kiveksen rosvojen tarinasta lehtiaineiston, kauno- ja tietokirjallisuuden sekä paikallishistorian pohjalta. Tämän jälkeen asetan rosvouden laajempaan taloudelliseen, poliittiseen ja sosiaaliseen tulkintakehykseen, eli kato- ja nälkävuosien, syvenevän velkaantumisen, omistus- ja valtasuhdemuutosten ja tervanpolton runtelemien metsien maailmaan. Lopuksi sovellan Kiveksen rosvoihin Eric Hobsbawmin sosiaalisen rosvouden määritelmää ja tarkastelen, missä määrin Kainuun rosvous voidaan tulkita kapitalistisen kehityksen muovaamaa todellisuutta haastaneena liikkeenä.

Movement of Social Banditry – Early Iron Industry, Tar-economy and Social Banditry in the 19th Century North Finland

The article considers a decade-long phenomenon of social banditry in the 1860’s Kajanaland region in North Finland and its connection to wider social and world-systemic transformations in Northern periphery. First, I analyse how the fast collapse of the early iron industry and the disintegration of the ironwork community in a small village called ”Stone” created conditions for the rise of banditry. Second, I critically construct a story of the ”Bandits of Stone Village” as it is represented in different primary and secondary sources. Third, I situate the banditry into a wider political, economic and social framework, that is into the context of Northern periphery that suffered from collapsing iron industry, catastrophic food shortages and famine, deepening debt peonage, transformations in property and power relations and extractive tar-economy, which led in environmental degradation. Finally, I adapt Eric Hobsbawm’s concept of social banditry to ask into what extent the banditry of Stone Village can be interpreted as a movement challenging the reality of historical capitalist development in Northern periphery.

Los estudios sobre el bandolerismo han estado fuertemente influidos o condicionados por la alargada sombra de Eric Hobsbawm. Algunas de sus obras más leídas consiguieron elevar a esta figura histórica a la principal expresión del conflicto social en el mundo rural y rodearla de tópicos, mitos e ideales postrománticos. Sin embargo, el paulatino incremento de la producción historiográfica ha supuesto la revisión crítica de algunos de los estereotipos, imágenes y construcciones históricas que recaían en el bandolero, dotando de mayor complejidad el significado de sus comportamientos, sus estrategias delictivas, sus actitudes frente a la autoridad y sus relaciones sociales con las comunidades campesinas. De este modo, el propósito de este artículo reside en presentar una actualización del debate, con especial atención al reflejo que ha tenido en la historiografía española, y proponer una serie de ideas y líneas de investigación por las que ahondar en el conocimiento del conflicto rural y sus actores más relevantes.

This article sheds light on the situation of the Northern Caucasus in late imperial Russia by portraying the life and deeds of one of the most notorious bandits of the time: the Chechen "abrek" Zelimkhan Gushmazukaev. Together with his small group of followers, Zelimkhan for more than a decade roamed this mountainous region, raiding Cossack farms, robbing banks, trains and post offices, and murdering local representatives of the Tsarist government. He was killed in September 1913. He gained legendary status during his lifetime, and became a frequent topic of debate in the Russian press as well as the ruling political and military circles. Social-democrats tended to portray this figure as a symbol of the oppressed people and a fighter for social justice. For conservatives, Zelimkhan was the living proof that the modernizing project in what was considered the most backward part of the Russian Empire had gone terribly awry. Drawing on newspaper articles and book publications from the late Tsarist and early Soviet period, as well as recently published police and other reports from the imperial Russian archives, this article explains the myth behind the legend and seeks to gain insight into the complex social realities in this volatile region of the Russian Empire.