Feuding, Conflict and Banditry in Nineteenth-Century CorsicaCambridge University Press, 2003 M10 30 - 576 pages Corsica is associated in many people's minds with vendetta and banditry, but these phenomena have not been studied systematically. Using accounts by visitors and officials and particularly judicial records, this book provides such a study for the nineteenth century. Accounts of specific feuds lasting over many generations are given, including that which inspired Mérimée's Colomba, and the whole phenomenon is set in its proper context of competition for scarce material resources and power in a traditional agro-pastoral society. Attitudes to death and the dead are examined, and reveal a divergence between local practice and belief and official Christianity, and the persistence of the notion that the spirit of the slain requires to be placated with blood. A general theme is the impact upon an isolated traditional society, and its system of sanctions, of incorporation into a modern state with courts and police. |
Contents
Corsica in the nineteenth century | 1 |
The history and incidence of feuds | 17 |
Conflict and its causes conflicts of material interest | 61 |
Conflict and its causes conflicts of honour | 91 |
Conflict and its causes intrafamilial conflict | 129 |
Conflict and its causes intercommunity conflict | 158 |
Obligation and organisation in the feud | 177 |
Immunity and disruption | 207 |
Patronage and political conflict | 294 |
Banditry | 335 |
Death and the dead | 377 |
Conclusion | 415 |
APPENDICIES | 419 |
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS | 428 |
NOTES | 429 |
533 | |
Other editions - View all
Feuding, Conflict and Banditry in Nineteenth-Century Corsica Stephen Wilson No preview available - 1988 |
Common terms and phrases
1st session 2nd session 4th session ADCS adjoint Ajaccio Antono Arbellara Arrighi Assize Court avenge Balagna banditry bandits Bartoli Bastelica Bastia Bazal Bigot bishop of Ajaccio blood Bourde Bozzi brother Busquet Calacuccia Calcatoggio Campile canton Casabianca Casanova church Ciamannacce cited common conflict Corsica cousin dead death dispute enemies enmity example Extraordinary sitting father Faure feuding Filippi Fozzano Francesco Gavignano Gendarmerie Ghisoni Giacomoni Giovan-Battiste girl Giuseppo Gregorovius Gregorovius 1855 herdsmen homicide honour involved July killed land later Lenclud Letter Lorenzi de Bradi maquis marriage married Massoni Mattei mayor Mérimée Minister of Justice municipal nineteenth century Niolo Olmeta-di-Tuda Olmeto Ortoli Paoli party peace Peretti Petition for clemency Petreto-Bicchisano Pietri Pila-Canale Poli Pomponi Prefect Procureur-général to Minister prosecuted quarrel Quilichini Ravis-Giordani relatives Renucci Report Robiquet Saint-Germain 1869 Sartène seen shot Southwell Colucci 1933 Subprefect Susini Tavalone Tommaseo treaty Trib vengeance Venzolasca Versini village violence Viterbi vocero women wounded Zicavo
Popular passages
Page 538 - Forester.— Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia : With Notices of their History, Antiquities, and present Condition. By THOMAS FORESTER, Author of Norway in 1848-1849.