Mafia symbols are mostly imported from outside, not invented by insiders.

Evidence

In brief, standard interpretations of the symbolic apparatus surrounding the mafia are deeply flawed. This apparatus is certainly not genuine, in that for the most part it is not the work of insiders. These symbols do not spring from the sick minds inhabiting weirdly shaped skulls which so obsessed Lombroso. Nor are they the direct product of the advertising arm of the mafia. There is so much evidence against taking mafia symbols at face value that the subject would hardly seem worth discussing, were it not for their diehard resilience in much of the common understanding of this phenomenon. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 343

Categorization

• XREF: A useful correction to the common assumption that mafia ritual/rhetoric is homegrown — matters for the reader’s project of tracing how private protection regimes build reputational language.