"who were active in the city from the 1880s to the 1910s." mm #58
You have me wondering mm, when did gangs recognizable to us today first manifest. I did a quick search:"Nor are they unique to the 21st century" mm #60
The First Gangs - Gang Research
gangresearch.net/Archives/UIC/Courses/history/beforethrash.html
Two Secret Societies are especially important for US gangs, as well as gangs around the world. Both the Chinese Triads and the Italian Mafia and Camorra have ...
History of Gangs in the United States - Sage Publications
www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/43455_1.pdf
Mexican immigration accelerated in the early 1950s. Third period: 1950s–1980s. • By the 1950s, African American gangs in Los Angeles were beginning to assume a ...
History of Street Gangs in the United States
www.nationalgangcenter.gov/content/documents/history-of-street-gangs.pdf
May 4, 2010 ... The earliest gangs of New York were not criminal groups. Many street gang members were employed, mostly as common laborers (Adamson, 1998; Sante ...
7 Violent Gangs That Terrorized the Streets in the 19th Century
historyofyesterday.com/7-violent-gangs-that-terrorized-the-streets-in-the-19th-century-dd41b262fb4a
While New York City has a vibrant history of street gangs, the Forty Thieves was its very first gang². Sometime around 1825, these thieves and pickpockets ...
gang | Definition, History, & Facts - Encyclopedia Britannica
www.britannica.com/topic/gang-crime
Often, gangs operated to defend and assert the interests of ethnic groups new to the local society or region; thus, the most visible and violent gangs in each ...
Not much help.
There are various theories about the beginning of civilization. One popular explanation, the agricultural plow. That displaced the nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Then permanent settlements, food storage, and the early trades: carpentry, masonry, leather working, etc.
Before then there were likely rivalries both win clans, and among them.
But once there were permanent settlements, I suspect raiders soon followed. So the stage of human evolution where gangs first appeared depends heavily on how "gang" is defined. Coarsely, organized confrontation / exploitation of the common order.
It's human nature, and thus has probably been with us since forever. I vaguely recall accounts of what might be considered gang activity in apes, & cetaceans. The definition is determinative.