The injustice from the Sicilian perspective lies not in the basic assertion of mafia power in the island, but in the more pernicious belief that mafia and Sicily are synonymous. In any recognisable form, the mafia began to emerge towards the middle of the last century, but if the mafia as a structure is a comparatively recent phenomenon, its origins lie deep in Sicilian history and culture. The mafia has become conventional among mafiologists to identify three phases: the rural mafia, the urban mafia and the contemporary mafia which is variously characterised as international, financial or entrepreneurial. Tommaso Buscetta has so deeply revolutionised the state of knowledge about the mafia that mafia studies can be divided into pre- and post-Buscetta. The mafia, while continuing its well-established activities and even expanding into the illegal arms trade, was now embedded in the legitimate national and international economy.