Symbolic objects can serve as threats. … Issuing threats by means of symbolic objects may seem peculiarly old-fashioned, but it has some advantages. In a generally hostile environment obscure signals are perhaps better able to instill terror while requiring minimum exposure: no voice, no writing, no risk of being overheard, no traces.

XREF: Connects to signaling theory and the economics of threats — anonymous coercion outperforms explicit communication in hostile settings.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 337