Feud

"Vendetta" redirects here. For other uses, see Vendetta (disambiguation).

"Blood feud" redirects here. For the Simpson's episode, see Blood Feud (The Simpsons episode).

For the use of feud as a synonym of fief, see feudalism.

For the MSX videogame, see Feud (video game).

A feud is a long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds tend to begin because one party (correctly or incorrectly) perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another. A long-running cycle of retaliation, often involving the original parties' family members and/or associates, then ensues. Feuds can last for generations.

Blood Feuds/Vendetta

A blood feud is a feud with a cycle of retaliatory violence, with the relatives of someone who has been killed or otherwise wronged or dishonored seeking vengeance by killing or otherwise physically punishing the culprits or their relatives. Historically, the word vendetta has been used to mean a blood feud. The word is Italian, and originates from the Latin vindicta, "vengeance." In modern times, the word is sometimes extended to mean any other long-standing feud, not necessarily involving bloodshed.

Famous blood feuds

• The Campbell - MacDonald feud, including the Massacre of Glencoe (1692; Scottland)
• The Capone - Moran feud, including the St. Valentine's Day massacre (1930; Chicago, Illinois, USA)
• The Clanton/McLaury - Earp feud, also known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1881; Arizona, USA)
• The Donnelly - Lucan community feud (Ireland)
• The Gunn - Keith feud
• The Hatfield - McCoy feud (1878–1891; West Virginia & Kentucky, USA)
• The Lancaster - York feud, also known as the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487; England)
• The Percy - Neville feud (1450s; England)
• The Talbot - Berkeley feud
• Njál's saga, an Icelandic account of a Celtic-Nordic blood feud
• The Pleasant Valley War, also known as the Tonto Basin Feud (1882-1892; Arizona, USA)
• The Feud of Scampia (2004-2005; Italy)

Fictional blood feuds

• The Interlopers a short story by Saki, is a multi-generational feud between the families of Georg Znaeym and Ulrich von Gradwitz. Saki leaves the reader to determine the result of this feud.
• The Atreides - Harkonnen feud from Frank Herbert's Dune (novel)
• The Corleone - Tattaglia feud from Mario Puzo's The Godfather
• The Montague - Capulet feud, from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
• The Grangerford - Shepherdson feud, from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.
• The Barnes - Ewing feud, from the soap opera Dallas
• The Kryeqyqe - Berisha feud, from Ismail Kadare's novel, Broken April

Vendetta history

A fortified tower used as refuge for men involved in a blood feud that are vulnerable to attack. Thethi, northern Albania.

Originally, a vendetta was a blood feud between two families where kinsmen of the victim intended to avenge his or her death by killing either those responsible for the killing or some of their relatives. The responsibility to maintain the vendetta usually falls on the closest male relative to whoever has been killed or wronged, but other members of the family may take the mantle as well. If the culprit had disappeared or was already dead, the vengeance could extend to other relatives.

Vendetta is typical of societies with a weak rule of law (or where the state doesn't consider itself responsible for mediating this kind of dispute) where family and kinship ties are the main source of authority. An entire family is considered responsible for whatever one of them has done. Sometimes even two separate branches of the same family could come to blows over some matter.

The practice has mostly disappeared with more centralized societies where law enforcement and criminal law take responsibility of punishing the lawbreakers.

The Celtic phenomenon of the blood feud demanded "an eye for an eye," and usually descended into murder. Disagreements between clans might last for generations in Scotland, Ireland. Due to the Celtic heritage of many whites living in Appalachia, a series of prolonged violent engagements in late nineteenth century Kentucky and West Virginia were referred to commonly as feuds, a tendency that was partly due to the nineteenth century popularity of William Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott, authors who both wrote semihistorical accounts of blood feuds. These incidents, the most famous of which being the Hatfield-McCoy feud, were regularly featured in the newspapers of the eastern U.S. between the 1880s and the early twentieth century. Although they were interpreted as such at the time, there is little reason to believe that these American incidents had any correlation to "feuding" in Europe centuries earlier.

In Japan's feudal past the Samurai class upheld the honor of their family, clan, or their lord by katakiuchi (敵討ち), or revenge killings. These killings could also involve the relatives of an offender. While some vendettas were punished by the government, such as that of the 47 Ronin, others were given official permission with specific targets.

Traditions similar to vendetta have existed almost everywhere, as between various Arab people, Albanians and Circassians.

An alternative to feud was the blood money (or weregild in the Norse culture), which demanded payment of some kind from those responsible for a wrongful death. If these payments were not made, or refused by the offended party, a blood feud would ensue.

Vendetta in modern times

Vendetta is reputedly still practiced in some areas in Corsica and Italy (especially Sardinia, Campania, Sicily and Calabria), in Crete (Greece), in eastern regions of Turkey, in northern Albania, among Pashtuns in Afghanistan, in the mountains of Yemen and Morocco, among the highland tribes of New Guinea, in Svaneti and among Chechen teips where those seeking retribution do not accept or respect the local law enforcement authority. Vendettas are generally based on a perceived or actual indifference on behalf of local law enforcement.

Similarly, honor killings are practised among more conservative sections of Muslim society, usually against female members of a family for perceived sexual or other transgressions.

Mutual vendetta may develop into a vicious circle of further killings, retaliation, counterattacks and all-out warfare that can end in the mutual extinction of both families. Often the original cause is forgotten, and feuds continue simply because it is perceived that there has always been a feud.

Some of the gang wars between organized crime groups are effectively forms of vendetta, where the criminal organization (like the Mafia "family") has taken the place of blood relatives.

Hip-hop feuds

Main article: Hip-hop rivalries

In modern hip-hop, rappers notoriously engage in verbal warfare with one another, which occasionally spills over into actual violence and sometimes murder. The most high-profile feud in rap was the Tupac - Notorious BIG Feud, which included several shootings and attacks on friends of both icons. It culminated with the highly publicized killings of Tupac Shakur in 1996 and The Notorious BIG in 1997. Other notable rap feuds have included:

• Jay-Z & Nas
• 50 Cent & Ja Rule
• Eminem & Benzino
• DMX & Ja Rule
• 50 Cent & The Game
• Insane Clown Posse & Eminem
• KRS-One & Nelly
• Amy Charles - from Llanrumney Cardiff & Pink Gadget

Wrestling feuds

Main Article: Feud (professional wrestling) In professional wrestling, a feud is a staged disagreement between two wrestlers or factions.

External links

• BBC: In pictures: Egypt vendetta ends May, 2005, One of the most enduring and bloody family feuds of modern times in Upper Egypt has ended with a tense ceremony of humiliation and forgiveness. Police are very edgy. After lengthy peace talks, no one knows if the penance - and a large payment of blood money - will end the vendetta which began in 1991 with a children's fight.

See also

• Black Donnellys
• Blood Law
• Blood money
• Catalan vendettas
• Gang violence
• Gjakmarrja (Albanian blood feuds)
• Hatfields and McCoys
• Honour killing
• Kanun
• Mafia
• Misanthropology
• Revenge
• Violence