Mafia families share a common asset of reputation, equivalent to a trademark: a guarantee of high-quality protection and effective intimidation. This reputation is distinct from that of each individual family or member, but each gains from it, and each has an interest in maintaining its distinctive features. The same action undertaken by a protection group which cannot successfully claim to be a recognized part of the mafia is less effective and more costly to implement. This understanding of the mafia makes sense of the mystifying ambiguity of interfamily relationships, in which conflict and cooperation, internecine fighting and common identity, coexist. It also makes it possible to grasp how the mafia and its symbols may be externally fabricated without therefore inferring that the whole phenomenon is a fantasy. As the case of Cacao Meravigliao (see Chapter 6) shows, an invented brand name can become attractive to real producers.

DEFINE: Reframes the mafia as a reputation/trademark system where collective standing enhances enforcement and protection, rather than purely a criminal organization.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 653