Mafia initiation rules are flexible enough to accommodate emergencies

Evidence

These are the ordinary rules of initiation; however, if necessary, when it is not possible to follow these criteria, it is permissible to resort to a faster initiation procedure, so long as at least three other men of honor are present, even if they belong to other families, and even if they come from another province. … In cases of absolute necessity one can even do without the presence of a member of the family to which the novice is going to belong. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 735

Categorization

• XREF: Milgrom et al.’s private-judge model: flexibility in who performs the ceremonial enforcement validates membership without requiring in-family presence — admission substitutes for record-keeping in distributed systems.