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VENDETTA (Ital. from Lat. vindicta, r...

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 982 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VENDETTA (Ital. from See also:Lat. vindicta, revenge, vindicare, to defend oneself) , the See also:term applied to the See also:custom of the See also:family See also:feud, by which the nearest kinsman of a murdered See also:man was obliged" to take up the See also:quarrel and avenge his See also:death. From being an See also:obligation upon the nearest, it See also:grew to be an obligation on all the relatives, involving families in See also:bitter private See also:wars among themselves. It is a development of that See also:stage in See also:civilization See also:common to all See also:primitive communities, when the injury done was held to be more than See also:personal, a wrong done to the whole gens. The term originated in See also:Corsica, where the vendetta has See also:long played an important See also:part in the social See also:life. If the murderer could not be found, his family were liable to fall victims to the vendetta. The feud was sometimes complicated by the vendetta transversale, when each of two branches of a family had a See also:murder to revenge on the other. In Corsica it was regarded as the most sacred family See also:duty. Mediators (parolanti) sometimes intervened successfully to end the feuds, and extort an See also:oath to forgo vengeance. The custom still survives in Corsica in its See also:complete See also:form, and partially in See also:Sardinia, See also:Sicily, See also:Montenegro, See also:Afghanistan, among the Mainotes of See also:Greece, the Albanians, See also:Druses and See also:Bedouins.

End of Article: VENDETTA (Ital. from Lat. vindicta, revenge, vindicare, to defend oneself)

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