In Europe banditry assumed its most important forms in rural societies, particularly in Mediterranean regions and particularly as property relations changed in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. Although they were supported by the local community whose yearnings for a prepolitical just world they embodied, they were usually betrayed. What should I call bands of armed men in the Middle Ages? One exemplary leader was Zhang Mao of Wenan. Because they were embedded in local communities, bandits benefited from a grassroots solidarity against outsiders and state authority. Inevitably, state authorities viewed such violence as a sign of "barbarism" to be mercilessly extirpated, and as a moral weakness in the peasants who were duped by the bandits. C for Cobras A group of cobras is called a quiver. Encyclopedia.com. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. London, 1972. One official reported that soldiers travelling by the Grand Canal from adjacent garrisons to the capital committed robbery and murder against civilian travelers and merchants; on the land, these soldiers had fallen into mounted banditry as well. Britannica Dictionary definition of BANDIT [count] : a criminal who attacks and steals from travelers and who is often a member of a group of criminals They were two of the most famous bandits [= outlaws, robbers] of the 19th century. Myth and folklore color some famous bandits so completely that accurate historical depiction is difficult. ." Domination by the wealthy forced the rural masses to defend their interests through various means. "The 'Noble Bandit' and the Bandits of the Nobles: Brigandage and Local Community in Nineteenth-Century Andalusia." . One 1485 official report revealed that local people, some probably working as fences (see Fences in Ming China), purchased stolen animals and goods from highway bandits at lower prices. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/banditry, "Banditry . Ming China was largely an agricultural society and contemporary observers remarked that famine and subsequent hardship often gave rise to banditry. In his Contrat social (social contract; 1762) the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau singled out the Corsicans in Europe as the one people fit to produce just laws. Women played only a minor role in banditry. In Spain, Sicily, Greece, and Corsica (and, on the other side of the Atlantic, in Latin America), bandits became important literary, as well as operatic and iconic, subjects. Sometimes you look at a group of animals, and youre not really sure what to refer to them as collectively. Translated by Sergio Waisman. Who are the 'bandits' terrorising Nigeria's 'Wild Wild West'? Prodded by my daughter Nadia who had taken . Its meaning has changed across time and across disciplines. I want to receive exclusive email updates from YourDictionary. Consequently, it is difficult at the local level to distinguish those acts that can be called personal (such as a vendetta over a matter of honor) from those that can be labeled political (such as protecting the political interests of the elite). B for Butterflies A group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope (and when you imagine a massive group of them all taking wing it's easy to see why!) Another skill was the ability to deploy road blocks to stop and prey on travelers. A politically powerful family could insulate bandits from police and legal authorities. The more protected an individual was, especially by powerful patrons, as in Sicily, the less he needed to use violence for the meanings it could convey and the more opportunities he had to employ ambiguity and courtesya point noted by many outside observers, although such courtesy must surely have been ironic. Ithaca, N.Y., 1994. Bandit Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com Unlike pre-political social bandits or self-serving guerrilla bandits, political bandits had a consciousness of and loyalty to a larger political movement. Social banditry is a widespread phenomenon that has occurred in many societies throughout recorded history, and forms of social banditry still exist, as evidenced by piracy and organized crime syndicates. The owner would thus be forced to complete the bitter destruction of his own herd. Terms of venery is the more official phrase for what we know as collective nouns, nouns of assembly, or names for groups of animals. In Corsica, for example, many bandits were obliged to rely on the support of family and kin and thus soon found themselves further enmeshed in family feuds. History Workshop 33 (1992): 124. If theres a boat but no water, you need to go back to pirate school. The Uskoks of Senj: Piracy, Banditry, and Holy War in the Sixteenth-Century Adriatic. Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Snowden, Frank M. Violence and Great Estates in the South of Italy: Apulia, 19001922. Bandits required protection in order to survive; otherwise they were quickly killed by the landlords' retainers, the police, or the peasants. Even if folk views of heroic bandits do not reflect historical reality, they do reflect much about the yearnings and values of Latin America's rural masses. (They mainly protect the surrounding villages from a group of bandits.) Some estimates suggest that there are 1.4 billion insects for every single human on the planet. Two famous Italian politicians, Luigi Franchetti and Sidney Sonnino, who conducted a wide-ranging investigation in Sicily in the late nineteenth century, noted that, unless one introduced the notion of complicity, it was difficult to understand why there was such widespread peasant submission to the activities of bandits. Driessen, Henk. Bandits. [3], In Nazi-occupied Europe from 1939 to 1945, the German doctrine of Bandenbekmpfung ("bandit fighting") portrayed opponents of the Greater Germanic Reich as "bandits" dangerous criminals who did not deserve any consideration as human beings. Likewise, stories about bandits should not be treated as primary raw data on the bandits themselves or as simple expressions of hidden peasant aspirations, but rather as the result of a process of elaborated discourse (including textual discourse and reinterpretation) about power relations within society. Enter the length or pattern for better results. Contemporaries regarded bandits as archenemies of the state and a threat to divine order, denying the state monopoly over the possession of arms and sinning against God's eighth commandment. Cowboy's Glossary of Terms - People & The Land Discourse on and about bandits in society indicates a great deal about that society and its power relations. The collective name for a group of apes is called a shrewdness. Ortalli, Gherardo, ed. In addition to a desire for economic gain, personal and familial conflict drove some men to banditry. Yet through that act the bandit embarked on his final transformation. Bande armate, banditi, banditismo e repressione di giustizia negli stati europei di antico regime. He is still celebrated in German folklore, being idealized as a "social bandit." Kinship, real or fictive, was an important component of their organization, and solidarity was reinforced through the institutions of blood brotherhood and adoption, as well as through feasting and other rituals. As the Sicilian novelist Leonardo Sciascia (19211989) noted, an element of latent racism entered into the northern view of the South, and as soon as banditry and organized crime were posed as typically "Sicilian" phenomena emerging from its psychology and history, the Sicilian educated classes reacted by minimalizing the criminality. Where there was no (state) law, Rousseau discerned justice; where the people were oppressed, Rousseau anticipated freedom; where the ancien rgime recognized anarchic, bloodthirsty bandits, he discerned exemplary citizens capable of discipline. What is a person called who steals? Over time, certain populations picked those words up and ran with them. Property, as a stand-in for its owner, was subjected to an excess of violence, such as the disembowelment of livestock, but not killed. Latin American elites long have recognized the dangerous political potential of banditry and have made vigorous efforts to contain it. Indeed, when used by state authorities, the pejorative "bandits" labels forms of violent resistance they cannot control except by equally brutal repression. "A Word at War: The Italian Army and Brigandage, 18601870." [39], Marauding was one of the most common peasant reactions to oppression and hardship. Through a well-planned raid, Ning Gao, a client of another powerful eunuch Liu Jin, successfully wounded and captured Zhang Mao, who was then transported to Beijing and executed. The songs about the hardships of bandit life in Corsica, Greece, and elsewhere lament that becoming a bandit was far from glorious. In central and eastern Europe and in the Balkans, it was found in the countryside, in specific conditions (such as following wars and massive dislocations) and in specific periods, especially in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the modern nation-state was emerging. Banditry employs a distinctive and extreme form of personal power and prepotency that requires constant reinforcement by means of a series of actions, such as selective generosity and magnanimity, as well as calculated arbitrariness. SOES Bandits Definition - Investopedia What is a Group of Rabbits Called? Encyclopedia.com. Paris, 1861. In its archaic form, venery is a noun that means the sport or act of hunting game beasts; the chase. This comes from the Medieval Latin word venaria, meaning beasts of the chase, game.. Sixty years later Ronald Reagan publicly referred to members of the Sandinista government as "thugs." Thus activities by bandits that had political implications (such as violence that kept the peasants cowed and docile) were often perceived as personal at the grass roots and hence of only limited concern, except to the participants. According to Hobsbawm, the characteristic feature of social bandits is that "they are peasant outlaws who the lord and state regard as criminals, but who remain within peasant society, and are considered by the people as heroes, as champions, avengers, fighters for justice, perhaps even leaders of liberation, and in any case as men to be admired, helped and supported" (p. 17). From the perspective of the modern nation-state, bandits (or brigands, a term more popular in the nineteenth century) are criminals who resist the civilizing power of the state through violence, brutality, extortion, theft, and protection rackets. Gilbert M. Joseph, "On the Trail of Latin American Bandits: A Reexamination of Peasant Resistance," in Latin American Research Review 25, no. Although it would be simplistic to attribute the decline of banditry in the modern world to the state's increasing monopoly of violence, this is certainly important. Michel Foucault noted that the greater the spectacle of state punishment (and most glorifications of banditry by the peasantry date from the period immediately after the establishment of nation-states), the greater the risk that it would be rejected by the very people to whom such spectacles were addressed. Cambridge, U.K., 1977. If youre not sure, you can usually refer to a large collection of a bug species as a swarm (for large groups of flying insects) or colony. In many societies, such as in southern Spain, Sicily, Greece, and the Balkans, banditry had a predominantly agro-pastoral base. After the selection and killing of the victim, whether the original offender or a surrogate, the body was often mutilated to underscore the significance of the act of revenge. It gained momentum in the nineteenth century, and still persisted in twentieth-century historiography, when historians such as Carsten Kther interpreted preindustrial banditry as a counter-society. 96 Words and Phrases for Group Of Bandits - Power Thesaurus (April 27, 2023). Likewise, in the mid- to late nineteenth century, Klephts also figured prominently in Greek historiography, representing an often entirely fictional traditional opposition to Ottoman rule. [27], Of course, the Ming government used a heavy hand to crack down on banditry. Banditry, Chivalry, and Terror in German Fiction, 17901830. Bandits were natural men, outside time, but nevertheless potential lawmakers. Literary romanticization of bandits was pronounced during the formation of nation-states and was often coupled with the desire of the urban literati to discover sources of opposition (often to foreign rule) in the countryside. They might move from the outside to the inside or vice versa. DROVER: Term commonly used in the 1870s and 80s for a working cowboy engaged in trailing longhorns to market or a new range. As the term corsair is specific to the Mediterranean, the term buccaneer is specific to the Caribbean and the Pacific coast of Central America. In Sicily mafiosi were actively involved in the risorgimento (the nineteenth-century movement for Italian unification), backing the adherents of Giuseppe Garibaldi and managing to wrest effective control of landed estates from the absentee Sicilian aristocracy. Banditry can be seen as a continuum from the camel raiding Bedouin, through the "noble bandits" of the nineteenth-century Greek Klephts, to contemporary armed autonomist groups (such as Chiapas in Mexico or Kurds in Turkey or Chechen fighters against Russian intervention in Chechnya) labeled as "bandits" by the state. His adventurous life is the subject of many novels, poems, and even movies. The Latin American masses sometimes viewed bandits as heroes striking a blow against their rich oppressors. The late medieval legend of Robin Hood, who robbed the rich, switched clothes with beggars, and helped the poor, was popular not only in England but also in the rest of Europe for hundreds of years. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Murphy, Agnes Genevieve. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Souna is soon rescued by Garami, an Arms Peddler who sells weapons to clients wishing to buy guns. It operates between the state-imposed system of law and social order on one hand and the local system of vengeance and grassroots conceptions of justice on the other. While there isnt an official committee that says its a murder of crows or a crash of rhinos, its still worth knowing these different animal group names for your writing and personal knowledge. banditry." The major haunts of bandits in the early modern period were the Dalmatian highlands between Venice and Turkey, the vast frontier region of Hungary, Catalonia, the Pyrenees near the French border, and some of the low mountain regions in the Holy Roman Empire (e.g., Spessart, Westerwald). [26], The career nor the identity of a bandit was permanent. It is a specific form of arbitrary personal prepotency and agency with its own "aesthetic" and accompanying discourses, thriving on, and constituting itself through, a complex array of symbols. Neither solely a prepolitical form of protest nor a means of suppressing peasant unrest, it may have performed these functions among others. Billy Jaynes Chandler, The Bandit King: Lampio of Brazil (1978). Archives europennes de Sociologie 24 (1988): 127145. Peasant idealization of bandits was also variable and a function of their subsequent political evolution. Enter a Crossword Clue. One example was Gao Yingxiang, who started as a mounted bandit in Shaanxi and later became an important rebel leader in late Ming. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. In the 1962 film classic Cartouche, Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the role of this infamous eighteenth-century French bandit. 27 Apr. [17], The Capital Region also housed a huge number of soldiers with Ming's system of hereditary military and a major portion of bandits were actually soldiers stationed in the region. Balboa Navarro, Imilcy. //a group of bandits | English examples in context | Ludwig Family feuds, endemic to the Brazilian backlands, moved Lampio to take up the outlaw life. Granite Island: A Portrait of Corsica. If bandits are the backward, bloodthirsty, unthinking, "barbarians" the state (and army) portray them as, then it is the state's duty to suppress them in order to protect "civilized" values. 9 Most Outrageous Outlaw Heroes - bandits - Oddee The more marginalized a bandit was, the more dependent he was on protection, the greater the risk of betrayal, and thus the greater the tendency for violence to appear "gratuitous"that is, to signify itself. Yes! Names for Groups of Animals - The Fact Site Manuel Garca put banditry and extortion at the service of the independence movement. There were so many cimarrn (wild, feral) bandits on the rural roads between central Peru and Salta in Argentina that they became a favorite topic in fiction, such as the short novels of Juana Manuela Gorriti, Gubi Abaya and El ngel cado. An extreme form is contemporary political brigandage, which merges with political terrorism, blending political programs, covert violence, and protection rackets. But Latin American bandits have appeared in varied and complex guises. Bracewell, Catherine Wendy. Turpin is another fascinating case of an early modern criminal whom history turned from a ruffian into a glamorous character. See "Letteratura e Mafia," pp. Encyclopedia.com. Foucault, Michel. Hobsbawm's thesis has been criticized by Anton Blok and other anthropologists. Tiger Yang once served as a personal military retainer of the aforementioned Ning Gao before turning to banditry; similarly, when facing unemployment, some of Ning's former "bandit catchers" simply joined the bandit leaders Liu Brothers. The unduly positive images of historical bandits generated in folklore were offset by the negative images from politically motivated government sources. Bandidos somos y en el camino andamos: Bandidaje, caminos y administracin de justicia en el siglo XIX, 18211855: El caso de Michoacn. Geschichte des niederen jdischen Volkes in Deutschland: Eine Studie ber historisches Gaunertum, Bettelwesen und Vagantentum. But for them, too, it is clear that the structure of their gangs was decisively shaped by people who had a permanent address. Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. Banditry is an aggressive form of illegality and of adventurist capital accumulation found in certain social contexts, especially those marked by insecurity and violence; in this sense it is a product of political economy. This extracurricular raiding and pillaging was indistinguishable from piracy as defined above. . Bandit definition, a robber, especially a member of a gang or marauding band. It was not the traveling life that led some persons to banditry. The term is derived from the Roman-law concept of status rei Romanae, i.e., the public law of th, Bandicoots (Peramelidae and Peroryctidae), https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/banditry, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/banditry, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/banditry. When elites denied them access to land or to a living wage, the rural masses struck back using legal and extralegal tactics, including banditry. SStartingCell= (area ID) and save it. (1981). Lsebrink, Hans-Jrgen, ed. See more. In Latin America it was part and parcel of an expanding frontier economy. To him, an escape to the mountains may be the only way of avoiding an unjust state summons or pursuing a private revenge. Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty relates that the great bandit Zhang Mao lived in a big mansion in his hometown Wenan. Banditry in Europe traditionally appeared in areas where large-scale landholding coexisted with a relatively permanent intermediate strata of leaseholders or freeholders based upon family-sized plots, such as in Sicily, parts of Greece, and Cyprus. At other times banditry represented an economic alternative in a world of opportunity narrowly restricted by the elite. "Fools Banished from the Kingdom: Remapping Geographies of Gang Violence between the Americas (Los Angeles and San Salvador)." Bandits did not necessarily belong to the peasantry; they often belonged to those groups who sponsored or controlled the production of (often) literary symbols. Dickie, John. That eventually expanded to include creatures that werent hunted (like bugs), and usage that spread beyond just hunters. On the other hand it suggests that ordinary peasants or pastoralists, the source of national folklore and the social stratum from whom bandits were traditionally recruited, possessed the right ethnic sentiments in rejecting foreign authority, exploitation, and other abuses. See also Crime and Punishment ; Vagrants and Beggars . Banditry in agricultural contexts was usually more controllable and could be tamed more easily, especially when violent men from humble origins acquired secure property rights (usually through co-option or protection by elites) and thereby achieved legitimacy. Other sources, such as ballads, popular accounts, and oral historyoften bypassed by traditional historians engaged in depicting the history of the nation-state as the progress of civilization over barbarismconcentrated on bandits' roles as popular heroes. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. War increased dislocation and unrest in the countryside, further encouraging banditry. E for Eagles Paris, 1984. The peak of Catalan banditry was during the reign of Philip III (15981621). role in Jewish history In Judaism: New parties and sects The Sicarii (Assassins), so-called because of the daggers ( sica) they carried, arose about 54 ce, according to Josephus, as a group of bandits who kidnapped or murdered those who had found a modus vivendi with the Romans. [33] Such transition was not permanent and could often be reversed. As Paul J. Vanderwood has shown, the marginalized rural poor fomented disorder, including bandit attacks, and profited from the resulting conflict. It may be useful to distinguish between violence, as a performative act and a system of signs, and terror, as the effect of such actions on the wider social field within which bandits operate. However, if you ever see a bunch of birds and cant identify the species, you can always refer to them as a flock without much issue. In 1510 and 1511, several bandit gangs under the leadership of Liu Brothers, Tiger Yang raided and plundered Shandong and Henan. The extreme violence practiced by bandits against peasants in many contemporary accounts has been interpreted in two ways: as expressive or as instrumental. From the perspective of the state, the Mafia and brigantaggio became part of the wider questione meridionale (the southern question): Why is the South backward, crime ridden, and state resistant? Revenge in kind is threatened by the family who made the initial slight. In Anglo-American folklore Dick Turpin (17051739) is the English counterpart of Cartouche. [31] However, such patronage did not guarantee immunity. Few romanticized bandits actually lived the heroic, idealized lives attributed to them in popular culture or in Hobsbawm's social bandit model. The term cow puncher or "puncher" is more commonly used in the southwest. For an analysis of banditry, it may be useful to steer a middle course, borrowing from the various perspectives that treat bandits as primitive social rebels (as Hobsbawm does), as individual opportunists, or as the co-opted henchmen of rural potentates (as Blok does).
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