ABSTRACT

This article looks at boundaries as shared points of conflict and sociality in rural Sicily where the mafia and their opponents (‘antimafia’ cooperatives) have lately been at loggerheads. My focus is on neighbourly relations between owners of plots on both sides. This uncomfortable proximity of enemies allows us to see boundaries as more than markers of separation. For sure, Sicilian boundaries imprint a history of violence on the landscape and divide people along categorical lines. However, they also reflect histories of inheritance and kinship, while providing points of contact and an unexpected moral order of neighbourhood relations. A focus on borders shared between plots managed by ‘antagonistic’ social groups exposes emergent relations of conflict and solidarity between their owners. Land boundaries can be markers of proximity and difference between opposed groups who find themselves owning plots next to each other. The boundary underpinning such divisions can make neighbours of feuding groups, rather than confining them to closed clusters.

摘要

本文将边界视为西西里农村地区冲突和社会的共同点，黑手党及其反对者（“反抗联盟”合作社）最近陷入了僵局。我的重点是双方地块所有者之间的邻居关系。敌人的这种不舒服的接近使我们看到边界不仅仅是分离的标志。可以肯定的是，西西里人的边界在地势上留下了暴力的历史，并按照类别划分了人们。但是，它们还反映了继承和血缘关系的历史，同时提供了联系点和邻里关系的意想不到的道德秩序。由“对立”的社会团体管理的地块之间共享边界的重点暴露了所有者之间冲突和团结的新兴关系。土地边界可能是发现彼此相邻拥有地块的相对群体之间接近和差异的标志。支持这种划分的边界可以使封建集团成为邻居，而不是将它们限制在封闭的集群中。