Culture and Political Economy in Western Sicily presents the relationship between the early colonial period, a time when Sicily exported wheat and animal products, and a later neocolonial period, during which manpower is the principal energy loss.
The book discusses the rise and development of the Mafia; cultural codes that are important to contemporary social Sicilian organization; and the origins of these codes in early adaptations of the Sicilian people to externally generated political and economic forces.
The text will be of value to sociologists, economists, historians, and people who want a deeper understanding of the Mafia.

Contenu

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Introduction
World Forces of the Present
The Myth of Tradition
The Rise of Mafia
Broker Capitalism
Villamaura
Part I Preindustrial World-Systems
Chapter 1 Land Use and Settlement in Historical and Geographical Perspective
Sicily's Roles in Historical World-Systems
The Relationship of Animals to Agriculture in Sicily
Colonial Pressures and Settlement Patterns
Causes: The Role of Environment in Latifundism
Chapter 3 Political Structure under the Spanish Empire and the Emergence of Broker Capitalism Diarchy, Not Monarchy
Feudalism and Isolation: Misleading Issues
Royal Bureaucracies Outwitted
Relations among Settlements
Insecurity in the Countryside
Broker Capitalism and Political Structure
Chapter 4 Peasants, Herdsmen, and Rural Entrepreneurs
The Mezzadria System-Different from Slavery, Serfdom, and Free Labor
Latifundism and Peasant Insecurity
The Problem of Fragmentation
The Position of Herdsmen Compared to That of Peasants
Rural Places and Rural Entrepreneurs
Rural Enterprise and Kinship
Chapter 5 Cultural Codes
Furberia
Onore
Amicizia
Part II Sicily in a Postindustrial World-System
Chapter 6 From the Export of Wheat to the Export of Labor
New Types of Pressure
The Bourbon Bonifica: A Formula for Confronting the New World-System
1860-1880: The Pattern Repeated Again
1880-1900: A Closed Economy Phase of Italian Development
Land Reform in the Twentieth Century
The Postwar Land Reform: A Type of Welfare
Industrial Development
The Causes of Underdevelopment
Chapter 7 Displaced Herdsmen
Agrarian Reform and the Fate of Herdsmen
The Herdsmen's Response to Displacement
Chapter 8 The Civile Class and the Persistence of Broker Capitalism
Rivalry among Civil
The Civile Class and the North Italian Industrial Bourgeoisie
Bossism under Giolitti
Bossism in Villamaura
How the Political Structure That Favored Broker Capitalism Was Preserved
Administration by Prebendal Concession Since 1860
Public and Private Interests in Postwar Sicily
The Structure of Commodity Markets in Postwar Sicily
Tricks of the Trade
Broker Capitalism and the Export of Labor
Chapter 9 Mafia
The Foundation of the Political Shield
Recruitment to Mafia
The Evolution of Mafia Domain
Some Secrets of Mafia's Success
The Core of Mafia Organization: The Cosca
Omertà: Mafia and Ideology
Explaining Mafia
Mafia and the World-System
Chapter 10 Modernization without Development
Evidence of Change
Modernization at a Price
Underemployment and Fragmentation in Agriculture
Underemployment and Fragmentation in Nonagricultural Sectors
Educational Involution
Modernization and Cultural Codes
Chapter 11
Culture and Underdevelopment
Alternative Cultural Codes
A Look to the Future
References
Index