Mutilation

Mutilation or maiming (from the Latin: mutilus) is cutting off or injury to a body part of a person so that the part of the body is permanently damaged, detached, or disfigured.

Usage

Some ethnic groups practice ritual mutilation, e.g. scarification, burning, flagellation, tattooing, or wheeling, as part of a rite of passage. In some cases, the term may apply to the 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 is the "long-neck" people, a sub-group of the Karen people 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. The Danish Society for General Medicine has declared non-medical male circumcision an ethically unacceptable mutilation while the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has condemned non-medical male circumcision as a "violation of the physical integrity of children".

Castration is also a form of mutilation, as are body piercing some forms of extreme body modification, and some cosmetic surgery.

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