Mafiosi recognize each other through shared habits, not organization

Evidence

This does not mean, of course, that each member of a society is conscious of such an abstract notion of unity. It means that he is absorbed in innumerable, specific relations and in the feeling and the knowledge of determining others and of being determined by them. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 169 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

I designate as the content—the materials, so to speak—of sociation everything that is present in individuals (the immediately concrete loci of all historical reality)—drive, interest, purpose, inclination, psychic state, movement—everything that is present in them in such a way as to engender or mediate effects upon others or to receive such effects. In themselves, these materials which fill life, these motivations which propel it, are not social. Strictly speaking, neither hunger nor love, work nor religiosity, technology nor the functions and results of intelligence, are social. They are factors in sociation only when they transform the mere aggregation of isolated individuals into specific forms of being with and for one another, forms that are subsumed under the general concept of interaction. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 194 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mafioso friendship functions as an analytical tool to confine competition; Social unity is felt through concrete relations rather than abstract awareness — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 169; Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 194 (+1 more)

Related

• Social unity is felt through concrete relations rather than abstract awareness (similarity 0.82)
• Mafioso friendship functions as an analytical tool to confine competition (similarity 0.82)
• Social orders integrate at the level of attributed motives (similarity 0.81)
• Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Social unity is felt through concrete relations rather than abstract awareness #corroborates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 169
• Mafiosi’s understated style deliberately earns them trust and reputation #corroborates (0.75)
• Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction #expands (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 194