Anton Blok is a distinguished Dutch anthropologist whose bold and unconventional work has left an indelible mark on the fields of political and historical anthropology. Best known for his ethnographic and historical analysis of the Sicilian Mafia, Blok challenged sanitized views of power by uncovering its informal and often violent underpinnings. His book The Mafia of a Sicilian Village (1974) remains a foundational text in the anthropology of organized crime, demonstrating how criminal networks can function as deeply embedded social systems rather than simply lawless outliers.
Blok’s career has been characterized by a fearless commitment to studying the darker sides of society-violence, honor, corruption, and marginality-always with a sharp analytical lens and deep historical grounding. His comparative work across Mediterranean societies brought new attention to how localized power, honor cultures, and deviance operate within broader political structures.
Educated in the Netherlands and shaped by fieldwork in Italy, Blok’s research blended detailed ethnography with archival rigor. His scholarship reveals how anthropologists can illuminate not only distant cultures but also the often-hidden power relations shaping their own societies. Whether studying the Mafia, village feuds, or wartime banditry, Blok brought a rare combination of intellectual daring and empirical precision to anthropology.
Early Life and Education
Anton Blok was born in 1935 in the Netherlands, a country whose postwar intellectual climate would profoundly shape his scholarly orientation. While much of anthropology at the time was focused on non-Western societies, Blok sought to apply anthropological methods to European contexts, where he believed critical aspects of power and violence remained insufficiently examined.
He studied cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, where he was deeply influenced by the legacy of structural-functionalism and the emerging debates around political anthropology. He pursued further graduate research that blended ethnography with historical inquiry-an approach that would define his career. His early exposure to Mediterranean anthropology, particularly through the work of Julian Pitt-Rivers and Ernest Gellner, laid the foundation for his decision to conduct fieldwork in southern Italy.
Academic Career and Positions
Anton Blok began his academic career as a researcher in Italy, where he spent time conducting immersive fieldwork in a small Sicilian village. This work, which he undertook in the 1960s, would become the basis of his most famous book, The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, 1860–1960: A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs. Rather than treating the Mafia as a mere criminal syndicate, Blok explored it as a social institution rooted in patterns of honor, protection, and informal governance.
He held academic positions at several universities, most prominently the University of Amsterdam and Radboud University Nijmegen. Over the years, Blok taught courses on social anthropology, Mediterranean societies, political violence, and historical method. His interdisciplinary orientation made him a valued mentor to students in anthropology, sociology, and criminology.
Blok was also a visiting scholar at numerous institutions, including universities in Italy, the UK, and the United States. He actively collaborated with scholars across disciplines, particularly those studying power and informal authority in historical contexts.
Theoretical Contributions
Anton Blok’s theoretical contributions revolve around the anthropology of power, deviance, and honor-based societies, particularly in the Mediterranean region. One of his major contributions was to treat deviance-especially organized crime-not as a pathology or aberration, but as a form of functional social organization. In doing so, he aligned with and expanded the anthropological tradition of examining marginal figures (bandits, mafiosi, smugglers) as key to understanding broader societal norms.
His analysis of “violent entrepreneurs” in rural Sicily provided a new lens on how informal power structures operate in the shadow of weak or complicit states. Blok emphasized the cultural logic of violence, showing how Mafia leaders acted as brokers, protectors, and symbols of localized sovereignty in post-unification Italy.
Blok also contributed to debates around honor and shame, gender, and patron-client relationships, particularly in Mediterranean anthropology. His work has been central to understanding how reputational economies and symbolic violence operate in tandem with political and economic power.
Ethnographic and Regional Work
Anton Blok’s ethnographic legacy is anchored in his pioneering study of the Sicilian Mafia, a project that broke new ground in both subject and method. His fieldwork in Sicily during the 1960s provided unprecedented insights into the inner workings of Mafia families, focusing not on sensationalized violence but on how mafia leaders functioned as mediators of power and protection in rural communities. In The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, 1860–1960, Blok drew on interviews, historical documents, and local observations to depict the Mafia as a social institution shaped by honor, kinship, and distrust of the state.
Rather than viewing the Mafia as a criminal aberration, Blok argued that it filled governance vacuums in post-feudal, newly unified Italy. This ethnographic and historical blend made his work stand out from both criminology and conventional anthropology. He emphasized how mafia systems depended on cultural codes like omertà (silence), reciprocity, and male honor, echoing themes found in other Mediterranean societies.
Blok also conducted comparative research across southern Europe, including Spain and Greece, as well as in the Netherlands, where he investigated forms of informal power and deviance in postwar urban settings. His later work moved into historical anthropology, including studies of social outcasts and boundary figures, such as impostors, bandits, and “eccentric” intellectuals. These figures, he argued, reveal the limits and construction of social norms and institutional authority.
Influence and Legacy
Anton Blok’s influence spans political anthropology, Mediterranean studies, and historical sociology. His interdisciplinary method—fusing ethnographic immersion with archival depth-has become a model for scholars studying violence, informal power, and governance in both Western and non-Western contexts.
He is widely credited with legitimizing the anthropological study of organized crime, which at the time of his Mafia research was largely avoided by mainstream anthropology. His work informed a generation of researchers interested in clientelism, marginality, and symbolic power, including those working in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and postcolonial Africa.
Blok’s work also prefigured later developments in anthropologies of the state and violence, offering insights that resonate with the scholarship of James C. Scott, Michael Taussig, and Veena Das. His attention to both micro-level interaction and macro-level structures anticipated the rise of multi-scalar ethnography.
As a mentor, he helped shape the careers of many young scholars interested in critical, empirically grounded research. His emphasis on connecting field data to broader historical forces remains an enduring part of his intellectual legacy.
Selected Publications and Recognitions
Key Publications
- The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, 1860–1960: A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs (1974) – Blok’s seminal work; widely cited in anthropology, criminology, and history
- Anthropological Perspectives on the Mediterranean (1975, edited volume) – A foundational contribution to Mediterranean anthropology
- Honour and Violence (2001) – A comparative study on codes of honor, violence, and male identity across cultures
- De Bokkerijders: Roversbenden en geheime genootschappen in de Landen van Overmaas, 1730–1774 (1991) – Historical-anthropological study of 18th-century bandit groups in the Low Countries
Awards and Recognition
- Knighted in the Order of the Dutch Lion, one of the Netherlands’ highest civilian honors
- Recognized by numerous European academic societies for contributions to historical and political anthropology
- Invited speaker and guest professor at major institutions including Oxford, Harvard, and the European University Institute
Blok’s influence continues through his published work and through the scholars who have expanded his insights into new terrains of violence, power, and resistance.
Conclusion
Anton Blok occupies a singular place in the history of anthropology-a scholar unafraid to confront the raw edges of society, from mafia violence to political betrayal, all while maintaining methodological rigor and historical depth. His work stands as a model for how anthropology can illuminate the dark corners of human organization-not merely to sensationalize, but to understand how informal systems of power often mirror, supplement, or even subvert formal institutions.
Blok’s influence resonates in fields far beyond anthropology, including criminology, sociology, Mediterranean studies, and political theory. His ethnographic portrayal of the Mafia redefined how scholars conceptualize crime and authority, showing that violence and honor are not antithetical to social order but deeply entangled with it. By treating “deviant” figures like mafiosi, bandits, or impostors as windows into societal structure, he helped shift anthropology’s focus toward the study of marginality, liminality, and resistance.
Though he retired from active teaching, his writings remain deeply relevant-especially in a world where informal power networks, from organized crime to state-backed militias, continue to challenge official authority. Anton Blok’s intellectual legacy is one of courage, clarity, and complexity. His work reminds us that anthropology is not just about studying cultures-it is about grappling with the messy, often uncomfortable realities of how power operates in human lives.