A ''cosca'' (; pl. ''cosche'' in
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
and ''coschi'' in
Sicilian), in Sicily, is a
clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship
and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...
or
Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of ...
crime family
A crime family is a unit of an organized crime syndicate, particularly in the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia, often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activities. In its strictest sense, a ''family'' ...
led by a ''
capo''.
The equivalent in the
'Ndrangheta
The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a mafia-type organized crime, criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy. Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 65–68 This body, also referred to as the Commission in reference to the ...
in
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
is the
'ndrina.
Etymology
A ''cosca'' is the crown of spiny, closely folded leaves on plants such as the
artichoke or the
thistle
Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterized by leaves with sharp spikes on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. T ...
, which symbolizes the tightness of relationships between mafiosi.
References
* Blok, Anton (1974/1988). ''The Mafia of a Sicilian village 1860-1960. A study of violent peasant entrepreneurs'', Long Grove (IL): Waveland Press. .
* Dickie, John (2004).
Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia', London: Coronet. .
* Servadio, Gaia (1976). ''Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day'', London: Secker & Warburg. .
External links
{{Mafia
Organized crime terminology
Italian words and phrases