The Social Workings of the Sicilian Mafia, from its Beginnings to Today

The Mafia has long fascinated our society, perhaps because there is something we find romantic about organized crime and the Mafioso. Popular culture has created an image of what a Mafioso is and engrained it into our perceptions, through movies and television. These popular culture portrayals do show some similarity to the real Mafia, but in order to truly understand this "organization" we must examine their origins. However, there is no straightforward story about the formation of the Mafia. One man did not simply form the Mafia and declare himself its Don. We must look at the histo…