Ritual substitutes for unenforceable contracts in illegal protection markets

Evidence

All signs indicate that the mafia ritual is practiced for purely internal reasons. For over one hundred years the ceremony has undergone almost no modification at all. If it existed merely to impress others, modifications would be expected in response to changes in fashion and taste. So what internal function does the ritual serve? One hypothesis is that it may set the seal on a contract which cannot be ratified in the conventional way: shaking hands is a weak gesture which does not capture the imagination of recruits and cannot be expected to deter opportunistic behavior in an illegal world; scribbling one’s name at the bottom of a written document, itself a ritual act binding parties in ordinary transactions, has the additional disadvantage of leaving evidence behind. Hence this most prosaic protection deal is transmuted into a permanent bond by means of a concentrated symbolic act. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 402

Categorization

• XREF: Directly maps to Milgrom et al.’s argument that extralegal contracting needs cheap formalities to signal agreement; the blood ritual is precisely such a costly, memorable signal replacing written evidence.
• ADDENDUM: Supports ‘On Sacrifice: The Real Kind, with Corpses’ — the blood-pricking oath parallels the sacrificial-logic of sealing permanent bonds through symbolic acts.