# Living near Cosa Nostra: kinship, silence and pressure Using limited Sicilian material, this article distinguishes an organisational “family”, kinship and particular participation. Fictional Paolo's story raises gratitude for help, pressure, responsibility and relatives' positions. It may help adults concerned about such dependency, their relatives, or readers separating established information from a general mafia image. Inside: - Why does “family” establish no participation by every relative? - What can lie behind silence, and what does silence alone not prove? - Does earlier help authorise every later task? - Why can legal status not be promised from an everyday account? - How does assistance retain the boundaries of people harmed? Historical documents determine neither someone's current role, individual legal outcome nor safe refusal. ---