Bandit definition, a robber, especially a member of a gang or marauding band. Recent research has revealed that bandits cannot be generally identified with the itinerant population. Conversely, there are "contemporary bandits" involved in protection rackets, common robberies, murder, and other crimes. Bandits. Being Bandits, almost all of their armor is torn, tattered, worn, battered, or frayed, and nearly all of their weapons are rusty, splintered, and bent. Recommended for you Gorriti, Juana Manuela. . 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. First, bandites d'honneur, heroes of the vendetta, exponents of personal honor on the periphery of society, are always presented on the horizon of the past, as traces of a nostalgic world that has been lost forever. I want to receive exclusive email updates from YourDictionary. Banditry tended to appear less frequently in areas with large masses of rural proletarians, such as Puglia in southern Italy. Another skill was the ability to deploy road blocks to stop and prey on travelers. The Uskoks of Senj: Piracy, Banditry, and Holy War in the Sixteenth-Century Adriatic. Corsairs were essentially privateers, although the term corsair carried an added religious connotation because the conflict was between Muslim and Christian powers. But Latin American bandits have appeared in varied and complex guises. In Sicily, such support was forthcoming from mafiosi (local men of authority who often engaged in illegal activities and protection rackets) or local politicians. Eric J. Hobsbawm, Bandits, rev. A group of swordsmen are called bandits. Sign up for our weekly newsletters and get: By signing in, you agree to our Terms and Conditions Elitist officials typically labeled as bandits any groups that threatened their political monopoly. [35] His gang of bandits eventually grew into a rebel army and Deng conducted attacks on the government in Fujian. Much the same appears to have happened in Andalusia, where absentee landlords were separated from a mass of largely landless laborers and where rural discontent increasingly took class forms. Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/banditry. Some of the most notorious corsairs were the Barbary corsairs of North Africa, who were aligned with the Ottoman Empire but were often beyond the empires ability to control them. Much like the rest of human language, these terms of venery come from literature, culture, and (in some cases) random happenstance. Translated by Sergio Waisman. Such actions served as a warning or an unambiguous omen of further action. 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. Balboa Navarro, Imilcy. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Ithaca, N.Y., and London, 1992. (April 27, 2023). [9] Tong concludes that his "rational choice model predicts that there would be more rebellions and banditry where the likelihood of surviving hardship is minimal but the likelihood of surviving as an outlaw is maximal. bandit noun [ C ] us / bn.dt / uk / bn.dt / a thief with a weapon, especially one belonging to a group that attacks people traveling through the countryside Synonym brigand literary SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases Murderers & attackers abductor assailant assassin attacker basher butcher cyberbully death squad gunman highwayman Oxford, 1987. "Bandits and the State: Robbers and the Authorities in the Holy Roman Empire in the Late Seventeenth Century." 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. See alsoGangs; Maroons (Cimarrones); Quiroga, Juan Facundo. Banditry is therefore a phenomenon that is not only often refractory to the investigations of the outside observer but also concealed from the participants themselves. He eventually settled on robbery. (April 27, 2023). . In a number of places, however, bandits belonged to the peasantry through their presence in widely circulated chapbooks, which popularized and contemporized bandits. https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/banditry, "Banditry Originating with the Greek peirats, meaning brigand, it can be applied to a wide range of nautical misbehavior, including coastal raiding and intercepting ships on high seas. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Calculated arbitrariness in imposing one's will and extravagant generosity are two aspects of the same phenomenon. In modern usage the word has become a synonym for "thief", hence the term "one-armed bandit" for gambling machines that can leave the gambler with no money.[1]. This interpretation is also problematic since violence reinforces the fragmentation of peasant collective consciousness but is not its direct cause. Peasant complicity was not always imposed through terror but could also be spontaneous and lucrative. Harmondsworth, U.K., 1985. During the Mexican Revolution, peasants formed regional bandit gangs to combat the encroachment of large haciendas or other forces of change that disrupted traditional Indian village life. Caution must be exercised in reducing discernible sociological facts, such as the observation that a bandit successfully managed to evade capture for a long period, to single empiricist causes, such as powerful protection. Myth and folklore color some famous bandits so completely that accurate historical depiction is difficult. On the Christian side the Knights of St. John, based in Malta, harassed Muslim commercial shipping in the 16th and 17th centuries. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. In Crete, for example, extensive livestock theft was legitimated orally by reference to highly selective, nationalist accounts of the "freedom-loving" Klephts of old mentioned in in schoolbooks. banditry." One example was Gao Yingxiang, who started as a mounted bandit in Shaanxi and later became an important rebel leader in late Ming. In Northern Canada, the term fluffle is also used to refer both to the group of hares and rabbits. [25], Once they forcefully acquired goods and commodities, bandits had to sell them. In mountainous areas of early modern Spain, banditry and brigandage remained a continual phenomenon throughout the period under discussion. Indeed, when used by state authorities, the pejorative "bandits" labels forms of violent resistance they cannot control except by equally brutal repression. They might move from the outside to the inside or vice versa. In one occasion, the influential eunuch Zhang Zhong helped his sworn brother Zhang Mao to negotiate with a commander sent to hunt down local bandits. Franchetti and Sonnino also noted a widespread admiration for bandits among the literati, who romanticized them, and paradoxically among landowners, the most likely to suffer from bandit depredations. Gilbert M. Joseph, "On the Trail of Latin American Bandits: A Reexamination of Peasant Resistance," in Latin American Research Review 25, no. By the mid-nineteenth century the countryside of Europe's periphery became a theatrical topos where the vicarious fantasies and terrors of an emergent national literate bourgeoisie could be collectivized and enacted in literature. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but witnesses have attributed it to "bandits", the catchall phrase for criminal gangs masterminding frequent bouts of abduction, maiming . Banditry in Islam: Case Studies from Morocco, Algeria, and the PakistanNorth West Frontier. What is a Group of Rabbits Called? [30] Other than escaping to difficult terrains, powerful bandits used their connections with high-standing figures in the capital to negotiate safety. The unduly positive images of historical bandits generated in folklore were offset by the negative images from politically motivated government sources. Its hard to say if lions are actually proud or what that even means to them, but pride was actually a pretty archaic term for a social unit of lions (back when they were spelledlyons). [27], Of course, the Ming government used a heavy hand to crack down on banditry. Some common criminals simply brutalized and abused their fellow men. The songs about the hardships of bandit life in Corsica, Greece, and elsewhere lament that becoming a bandit was far from glorious. The body had to be "prepared" retroactivelydisassembled and then reassembled in a grotesque parody of the original bodyto be offered back to the group who "made" it. Ancient History, Middle Ages and Feudalism. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an individual or in groups. When England seized Jamaica from Spain in 1655, the buccaneers resettled there. The Cuban independence period illustrates both political banditry and the interpretive debates going on in the study of banditry. She married at the age 11 to a man three times her age, but was abandoned by her husband and her family after the marriage broke down. Molfese, Franco. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an individual or in groups. This will put you in Vathume in a new game the next time you launch Skyrim. However, in some cases it proves difficult to distinguish between ordinary bandits and politically minded heroic outlaws, fighting against the oppressor. [26] Robinson further points out that "[a] widespread network to dispose of the stolen livestock linked" towns in the Capital Region to nearby provinces. [19] Another report of 1489 attested that soldiers had raided in Henan province. Richard W. Slatta, "Banditry as Political Participation in Latin America," in Criminal Justice History: An International Annual 11 (1990): 171-187. They used their prepotency and violence to protect their kins' interests and thus ensure the support of family against betrayal to the state. This box-office success, which was later reissued under the completely inappropriate title Sword of Blood, is part of the ongoing popularization and romanticization of the premodern underworld. Barcelona, 19621963. As shown above, a large number of bandits were actually garrison soldiers and had access to and able usage of weapons and armors. Social Memory. Many bandit gangs developed and profited from close ties to regional and local power brokers: the Caudillos (political bosses) or coroneis (planter elite). This means their equipment is in poor condition, and thus has somewhat lower than average stats. Women most likely lived with male bandit gangs at their hideouts. Novelists (such as Edmond About and Prosper Mrime) traveled to remote places in Greece and Corsica, for example, to ground their texts in direct experience and observation. [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. These . The word "thug" traces its roots to the Hindi and Urdu word thag, which means thief or swindler, and which itself is derived from the Sanskrit verb sthagati (to conceal).. ArCaLu/Shutterstock.com One of the most widely used names for a group of rabbits is a colony. Edited by John G. Persistiany and Julian Pitt-Rivers. Le roi des montagnes. War increased dislocation and unrest in the countryside, further encouraging banditry. All rights reserved. Manuel Garca put banditry and extortion at the service of the independence movement. In it I have a group of men who live in a castle and fight for the castle's lord. Lampio (Virgolino Ferreira da Silva) and Antnio Silvino in Brazil, Po Romero in Bolivia, and Manuel Garca in Cuba became symbols of popular resistance to oppression. Throughout the early modern period, especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, affluent travelers and merchants as well as peasants and farmers were afraid of banditry. For many people, the term pirate conjures up images of the so-called golden age of piracy, in the 17th and 18th centuries, along with legendary pirates such as Blackbeard or Captain Kidd or their fictional equivalents such as Long John Silver or Captain Jack Sparrow. Popular models of suffering were available in the lives and tortures of saints, and imprisoned bandits could become like saints, especially when they repented. In The German Underworld: Deviants and Outcasts in German History, edited by Richard J. Evans, pp. Economic self-interest also motivated many nineteenth-century bandits, as in Cuba's La Habana Province, where they consciously pursued their own personal gain in an opportunistic fashion. In other cases, such as in Corsica, mules' ears were cut off as a ritual death threat. Passive complicity consisted of a series of unconnected individual acceptances of the status quo and served to conceal illegal violent acts. Hobsbawm's thesis has been criticized by Anton Blok and other anthropologists. Gttingen, 1976. (April 27, 2023). ." 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. This term is also used when informally referring to a young rabbit. [28], The career of banditry often led leaders to assemble more bandits and army deserters and organize predatory gangs into active rebel groups. 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. The other French bandit-hero of the eighteenth century, Robert Mandrin (17241755) Brigantaggio politico had already emerged as a central feature of Corsican independence strategies against Genoa under Giacinto Paoli and Gian-Pietro Gaffori in the mid-eighteenth century. Solares Robles, Laura. He spoke of "pathological aberrations" and "ultra violence" as a manifestation of the "primitive" nature of bandits' rebellion, but he could not explain it adequately. Family feuds, endemic to the Brazilian backlands, moved Lampio to take up the outlaw life. Many of these hoodlums learned their trade in exile in Los Angeles and other U.S. locations and were later deported back to Central America, where they have been applying what they learned. A bandit is a robber, thief, or outlaw. 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. Its meaning has changed across time and across disciplines. Two pioneer historians who emphasized the social aspects of banditry were Franco Molfese and Eric Hobsbawm. Scott, James C. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. A beauteous gypsy by the name of Venus (Claudia Cardinale) sacrifices her own life to save Cartouche from harm. In Archivio Storico per la Calabria e la Lucania 42, Rome, 1975. Over time, certain populations picked those words up and ran with them. Robinson points out that bandits obviously perceived the benefits of supporting rebel cause but they also could be repelled to join; as a result, the 1510s rebels attracted a lot of local bandits and outlaws as they moved from one place to another. If theres a boat but no water, you need to go back to pirate school. Archives europennes de Sociologie 24 (1988): 127145. 75107. In Italy, the bandits also came from an agrarian background. 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. Sixty years later Ronald Reagan publicly referred to members of the Sandinista government as "thugs." Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. Comparative Studies in Society and History 14 (1972): 494503. What is a person called who steals? Between 1860 and 1870 more lives were lost during the Italian army's campaign in southern Italy against peasant brigandage than in the war of unification. Bandit leaders cooperated more often with the powerful, not the humble, elements of society. During the Ming Dynasty, military and civil jurisdictions were separated. [CDATA[ Stories that circulate about the bandit or mafioso often constitute an essential part of his power. A central way to express violence and damage one's opponent's interests was through the mutilation of both individuals and animals. Brigandage moved from being a question of individual barbarism that the state had to extirpate by aggressive actions such as massive repression to one of collective measurement, documentation, education, and economic development. Fully to realize themselves and the future, they had further to recover their bucolic pleasures and the simplicity and equality of the rustic life. If they existed in modern day times I'd refer to them as soldiers. Koliopoulos, Johns. Robber bands, however, as well as vagabonds and gypsies traveling in groups of varying sizes, were both more incalculable and more dangerous. Meet the original thugs. 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. Moss, David. see also one-armed bandit banditry / bndtri/ noun [noncount] They were charged with banditry and smuggling. He vows to continue his activities in order to avenge her death, but still manages to have a good time doing so. So a murder of crows is one of the coolest (or at least memorable) animal group names. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. and, usually, with the mass slavery of civilians from partisan-controlled areas.[5]. 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. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. As an exchange between individuals, banditry thus employed a specific set of finely graded messages involving violence to the body and property of the victim. Prior to that, you were just as likely to refer to them as a group, herd, or pack. However, banditry also arose because throughout Latin American history, elite rule restricted access to economic opportunity and political expression. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. Because privateering was generally a more lucrative occupation than military service, it tended to divert manpower and resources away from regular navies. Such profiteers formed whatever alliances they deemed useful. had marks left on them. . Thus peasant complicity might be either active or passive but equally significant in both cases. School here comes from schle, the Dutch word referring to a group, troop, or band. Thats also where you get the word shoal, an alternate collective noun for fish. There is ample proof, though hardly needed, that vagrants and social bandits were brothers in hardship and frequently mixed with each other. The following analysis focuses on this important category, where among other things causation has been carefully studied. Pirate is the most general of the four terms. Banditry employed a set of moral codes drawn and indistinguishable from kinship-based ideas of justice and retribution; hence a reaction against banditry was often impossible because it conflicted with the moral codes that regulated traditional society. [33] Such transition was not permanent and could often be reversed. The act resembles both a sacrificein that the victim of the second murder is not responsible for the firstand a legal punishmentin that the violent retribution can be seen as imposing an act of reparation on the offender. . In Sicily and Greece violent entrepreneurs from pastoral backgrounds managed to create new niches for themselves in the nation-state, especially when the new regime attempted to penetrate the countryside. When caught and juridically processed, their bodies became the subject of a publicly demonstrated spectacle of state power. 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.) In Latin America it was part and parcel of an expanding frontier economy. Madrid, 1934. He started his criminal career in 1602 and even features in Cervantes's Don Quixote (1605, 1615). Over 70 percent of the world is covered in water, so you can imagine that its home to a ton of different species. A Reuters report said that authorities in the area have attributed the most recent case of mass kidnapping to an armed group of bandits. So does banditry become a historiographical discourse about order, justice, and freedom. Sometimes you look at a group of animals, and youre not really sure what to refer to them as collectively. Rather than being champions of the poor, bandits often terrorized and oppressed them. Ming China was largely an agricultural society and contemporary observers remarked that famine and subsequent hardship often gave rise to banditry. Turpin's popular image entails many legends. was, as Hobsbawm has shown, a somewhat less suitable candidate for idealization. Clearly, bandits had an interest in encouraging the interpretation of their actions as personal and personalizing rather than political. The most famous French bandit of all times was Louis Dominique Cartouche (16931721), a celebrated Parisian outlaw, whose name became synonymous with "highway robber" to the French. Richard Slatta, Gilbert Joseph, and others have begun placing Latin American banditry in a broader, more comparative perspective. Many bandit groups plagued rural areas, but towns and cities could also be the haunt of the medieval gangster. The owner would thus be forced to complete the bitter destruction of his own herd. As with mammals, birds come in all forms, leading to a delightfully poetic sampling of collective nouns, from convocations to murders. Rabbits can be called colonies, fluffles, herds, warrens, or nests when in a group, depending on the context. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. According to German sources, three-quarters of Christian bandits whose parentage is known to us originated in the sedentary and integrated sectors of society. Herzfeld, Michael. Second, the land concentration that Prez considers a cause of banditry in fact came after many bandit gangs had emerged. 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. 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.. In banditry, as in feuding, from which it in part derives, personalized violence is crucial and finely graded; the intensity of violence, however distasteful to a modern sensibility, suggests a form of control. That eventually expanded to include creatures that werent hunted (like bugs), and usage that spread beyond just hunters. As the name suggests, privateers were private individuals commissioned by governments to carry out quasi-military activities.

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