The Robin Hood Principle: Folklore, History, and the Social Bandit

The commodification of the criminal corpse: ‘selective memory’ in posthumous representations of criminal

“…In the first section, theories of criminal celebration (Seal, 2009/Seltzer, 1998 were revealed as being integrally posthumous. In the second section, it was argued that branding and the cultivation of a brand image are also integral to being celebrated as a criminal, and that these mythic qualities are those that endure into corpsehood.…”

“…The oft cited Robin Hood Principle (Seal, 2009) -a theory of the formation of notoriety -is also one of posthumous myth. Continuing from previous work on legendary outlaws (1996), Seal argues that it is the noble, good and courageous criminals that we become infatuated with -with their mythic qualities being central to their preservation in folklore.…”

“…Continuing from previous work on legendary outlaws (1996), Seal argues that it is the noble, good and courageous criminals that we become infatuated with -with their mythic qualities being central to their preservation in folklore. Hero status is often sparked by an incident involving religious or class tensions within a society, occurring at the boiling point of social frictions (Seal, 2009). Instead of focussing attention on the perceived good deeds carried out by criminals, or their perception as embodying the ideology of the oppressed (Hobsbawm, 2001), Seal's explanation of historical criminal-celebrity leans toward fable and myth as the posthumous consequences of celebrated criminality.…”

‘Red sanders mafia’ in South India:

“…Veerappan is a powerful element in the local cultural repertoire of models of authority. A Robin Hood figure (Seal 2009) and protector of forests for some, the figure of Veerappan in South India epitomises the dangerous criminal for the state and the police forces. In doing so it also contributes to legitimising the criminalisation of labourers and the use of state violence against labour in the context of the red sanders criminal economy.…”

Noble Robbers, avengers and entrepreneurs: Eric Hobsbawm and Banditry in Iran, the Middle East and North Africa

“…The almost universal existence of Robin Hood legends across the world suggested, on the contrary, their profound historical, political and social significance. 12 As a consequence, both sympathizers of the social bandit thesis and those sceptical of the thesis, and occasionally also of the politics behind it, began to take a closer and more contextualized look at the folklore itself, interrogating the production, transmission, transmutation, and, perhaps most importantly, reception, of stories of bandit heroics. A number of case studies painstakingly deconstructed bandit legends, tracing their manipulation within the strategic discourses of power-seeking elites, particularly an urban nationalist intelligentsia.…”