Abstract
As a social phenomenon that torments modern states, mafia receives considerable political and legal attention. The term ‘mafia’ itself is often directly related to criminality and violence. Thus far, violence has been employed as an analytical construct that could explain compliance with the mafia ethos. Nevertheless, this schema fails to take into consideration possible discourses that make mafia tolerable.Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Reggio Calabria, South Italy, this paper explores distinctive mafia notions of giving and charity. I conceptualise mafia free gifts as a form of power that shapes a divine profile for the mafiosi. Status, umiltà, duty, and sacrifice frame free gifting as accorded to the overt religious rhetoric of mafia hierarchy. I argue that mafia free gifting embraces a series of complex non-violent discourses which relate closely to religious duty and altruism but work alongside capitalist systems. In principal these gifts do not bind recipients, yet are imbued with the potential of a relation.
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