Mutilation

Mutilation or maiming is an act of physical injury that degrades the appearance or function of any living body.

Some ethnic groups practice ritual mutilation, e.g. scarification, circumcision, burning, flagellation, tattooing, or wheeling, as part of a rite of passage. In some cases, the term may apply to treatment of dead bodies, such as soldiers mutilated after they have been killed by an enemy.

The traditional Chinese practices of língchí and foot binding are forms of mutilation. One form of mutilation that has captured the imagination of Westerners, as well as the now tourist centered "long-neck" people, a sub-group of the Karen known as the Padaung where women wear brass rings around their neck. The act of tattooing is also considered a form of self-mutilation according to some cultural traditions, such as within Christianity. A joint statement released by the United Nations and numerous other international bodies opposes female circumcision as a form of mutilation. Whether or not male circumcision amounts to mutilation is a subject of active academic debate.

Castration is also a form of mutilation, as are body piercing, subdermal implantation, and some cosmetic surgery.

Maiming, or mutilation which involves the loss of, or incapacity to use, a bodily member, is and has been practised by many societies with various cultural and religious significances, and is also a customary form of physical punishment, especially applied on the principle of an eye for an eye.

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