Resistance against the Mafia: A Civic Struggle to Defy an Uncontestable Power

This study is based on participant observation of a protest against the Mafia that occurred in Rome on 26 September 2009. First, this essay offers an analysis by using symbols and their meanings, which are illustrated through the ‘pyra- mid of social protest’. Second, the framing and process of the protest are analysed. Two new concepts are presented: the culture of lawfulness frame and the implicit contested process. Third, this essay shows that defying the Mafia be- gins with individual motivation but ends with the collective motivation behind the decision to be an activist. This de- cision includes ethically oriented reasons rather than being based on a materialistically calculated reasoning. Finally, the struggle of anti-Mafia movement illuminates cultural anthro- pology through its desire for a progressive society in which strong symbolic interactionism among the activists play an important role