A feud /fjuːd/, also known in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, or private war, or mob war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted, injured, or otherwise wronged by another. Intense feelings of resentment trigger an initial retribution, which causes the other party to feel greatly aggrieved and vengeful. The dispute is subsequently fuelled by a long-running cycle of retaliatory violence. This continual cycle of provocation and retaliation usually makes it extremely difficult to end the feud peacefully. Feuds can persist for generations and may result in extreme acts of violence. They can be interpreted as an extreme outgrowth of social relations based in family honor. A mob war is a time when two or more rival families begin open warfare with one another, destroying each other's businesses and assassinating family members. Mob wars are generally disastrous for all concerned, and can lead to the rise or fall of a family.
A blood feud is a feud with a cycle of retaliatory violence, with the relatives or associates of someone who has been killed or otherwise wronged or dishonored seeking vengeance by killing or otherwise physically punishing the culprits or their relatives. In the English-speaking world, the Italian word vendetta is used to mean a blood feud; in Italian, however, it simply means (personal) 'vengeance' or 'revenge', originating from the Latin vindicta (vengeance), while the word faida would be more appropriate for a blood feud. In the English-speaking world, "vendetta" is sometimes extended to mean any other long-standing feud, not necessarily involving bloodshed. Sometimes it is not mutual, but rather refers to a prolonged series of hostile acts waged by one person against another without reciprocation.[4]
In Greece, the custom of blood feud is found in several parts of the country, for instance in Crete and Mani.[12] Throughout history, the Maniots have been regarded by their neighbors and their enemies as fearless warriors who practice blood feuds, known in the Maniot dialect of Greek as "Γδικιωμός" (Gdikiomos). Many vendettas went on for months, some for years. The families involved would lock themselves in their towers and, when they got the chance, would murder members of the opposing family. The Maniot vendetta is considered the most vicious and ruthless;[citation needed] it has led to entire family lines being wiped out. The last vendetta on record required the Greek Army with artillery support to force it to a stop. Regardless of this, the Maniot Greeks still practice vendettas, even today. Maniots in America, Australia, Canada and Corsica still have on-going vendettas which have led to the creation of mafia families known as "Γδικιωμέοι" (Gdikiomeoi).[13][failed verification]
In Corsica, vendettas were a social code (mores) that required Corsicans to kill anyone who wronged the family honor. Between 1821 and 1852, no less than 4,300 murders were perpetrated in Corsica.[14]
Leontiy Lyulye, an expert on conditions in the Caucasus, wrote in the mid-19th century: "Among the mountain people the blood feud is not an uncontrollable permanent feeling such as the vendetta is among the Corsicans. It is more like an obligation imposed by the public opinion." In the Dagestani aul of Kadar, one such blood feud between two antagonistic clans lasted for nearly 260 years, from the 17th century until the 1860s.[15]
In Japan's feudal past, the samurai class upheld the honor of their family, clan, and their lord by katakiuchi (敵討ち), or revenge killings. These killings could also involve the relatives of an offender. While some vendettas were punished by the government, such as that of the Forty-seven Ronin, others were given official permission with specific targets.
Vendetta has been getting even in English since the 19th century, when it first was used to refer to feuds between different clans or families. It later extended in meaning to cover acts that are known to feature in feuds of all kinds. English speakers borrowed vendetta, spelling and all, from Italian, in which it means "revenge." It ultimately traces to the Latin verb vindicta, of the same meaning. That Latin word is also in the family tree of many other English terms related to getting even, including avenge, revenge, vengeance, vindicate, and vindictive.
To say that if a stranger dares to come in my yard, I am entitled to shoot him (meaning that the principle of ownership clearly out-values a human life) is tantamount to promoting a culture that supports vengeance, a kind of justice that takes the form of a vendetta of the state, the idea that the private individual can dispense justice by himself, and the faith, which ought to be ascertained, in the potential deterrent of the criminal justice system.
In premodern Italy, vendetta was a widespread practice with complex social, political, and cultural functions. Snapshots of vendetta violence frequently appear in the chronicles, letters, judicial records, and criminal records of premodern Italy. Vendetta appeared not only in these sources, as we would expect, but also left traces in petitions, dowry contracts, and wills. From this rich data, a picture emerges of vendetta as a widespread practice that was prevalent from the thirteenth century to the seventeenth and had pervasive social, cultural, political, and economic influence. It was a strategic, highly ritualised, and public practice in which the entirety of a family cooperated; because it required significant resources, vendetta was necessarily a strategic practice requiring detailed planning and careful cooperation. Civic statutes of towns addressed the practice by prohibiting secondary revenge, while preachers called for peace among disputants in their sermons. Attempts to curb violence and mete out punishment were thwarted, however, by the fact that many who practiced vendetta were also servants of the state. Such paradoxes were commonplace. Despite its seemingly sensational nature, vendetta was woven into the fabric of early modern Italian life.
This microhistory weaves in some very broad themes, examining the role of vendetta and factions in politics, the characteristics of a peasant revolt, the nature of the Venetian mainland state, the abandonment of the vendetta for the duel, and popular culture and Carnival.
Through extensive archival research, Muir provides a penetrating analysis of the vendetta that pitted the Savorgnan against other castellan families, notably the Della Torre and Colloredo. He shows the Savorgnan taking on the protection of the peasantry and popular faction in Udine and building close relations with Venice--far different from their enemies, who fostered marriage and patronage links within their own class. Factions became the most potent organizations for regulating disputes and local conflicts in the face of inefficiency, indifference, corruption and a profound divide between Venetian and Fruilan judicial systems. A key point that factions gathered in most of the tensions of Friulan society, many of which had very little to do with the technical obligations of personal revenge, emerges less clearly than before though.
The final chapter (pp. 157-182) moves up to the mid-sixteenth century and traces shifts in aristocratic behaviour, from the vendetta towards the suppressed anger of duels, from collective towards highly individualized concepts of honor, stimulated by the profileration of Renaissance books of manners. Throughout this work, like his books on ritual in Venice and early modern Europe, Muir draws very widely on anthropological theory (of feuding, masculinity): as it is meant for a general audience, influences such as Mikhail Bahktin, Carlo Ginzburg, and Le Roy Ladurie are now in the background.
In the Author's Note, Muir mentions a recent study of the same events by Furio Bianco.[1] As Muir says, "they agree more than they disagree" (p. xi), but I want to mention a difference of emphasis. Bianco focuses more on the souring of social relations in the countryside and the worsening material conditions of life. He attributes much of the peasants' fierce hostility to the castellan nobility to their conviction that these lords were infringing and undermining "popular norms of justice": so peasants were reasserting custom and ancient social norms to safeguard the common good against change. This perhaps meshes with Muir's evidence that vendetta violence disappeared in the countryside in favor of highly selective plundering (p. 107) and that rent-rolls and other seigneurial records were systematically burnt (p. 100).
My Name Is VendettaOriginal TitleIl mio nome è vendettaOriginal Language ItalianDubbing Studio VSI Los AngelesVoice DirectorMason GreerTranslation & AdaptationMadeline BaughRecorded2022Dub Country United StatesOriginal Country ItalyYear2022My Name Is Vendetta (Il mio nome è vendetta) is a 2022 Italian crime action film directed by Cosimo Gomez.
This Italian word is a cognate, so it means exactly what you think it does. Rigoletto seeks revenge against The Duke for persuing his daughter, and the old noble Monterone shares the same goal. With all these vendettas, the assassin Sparafucile is well employed.
A sixth victim was alive when police reached the scene but died from his wounds on the way to hospital in what police believe was a classic mafia hit - the result of a vendetta between two mob families who both come from the Italian city of San Luca.
After the egg-throwing incident, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, "the vendetta of San Luca was born". According to police in Italy, the Pelle-Romeo family took revenge by shooting dead Francesco Strangio, 20, and Domenico Nirta, 19, with two others left injured.
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