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Mutilation or maiming (from the ) is Bodily harm that has a subsequent harmful effect on an individual's quality of life.
In the modern era, the term has an overwhelmingly negative connotation, referring to alterations that render something inferior, dysfunctional, imperfect, or ugly.
According to these parameters, removing a whole hand would constitute dismemberment, while removing or damaging a finger would be mutilation; decapitation of a full head would be dismemberment, while removing or damaging a part of the face would be mutilation; and removing a whole torso would be dismemberment, while removing or damaging a breast or the organs contained within the torso would be mutilation.
A joint statement released by the United Nations and numerous other international bodies opposes female genital mutilation.
Historical examples are plenty; Chinese general Sun Bin had his kneecaps removed after being framed for treason during the Warring States period, while Araucanian warrior Galvarino had his hands amputation as punishment while as a prisoner during the Spanish conquest of Chile.
Maiming has often been a criminal offense; the old law term for a special case of maiming of persons was mayhem, an Anglo-French language variant form of the word.
Maiming of animals by others than their owners is a particular form of the offense generally grouped as malicious damage. For the purpose of the law as to this offense animals are divided into cattle, which includes pigs and , and other animals which are either subjects of larceny at common law or are usually kept in confinement or for domestic purposes.
In Britain under the Malicious Damage Act 1861 the punishment for maiming of cattle was three to fourteen years' penal servitude; malicious injury to other animals was a misdemeanor punishable on summary conviction. For a second offense the penalty was imprisonment with hard labor for over twelve months. Today maiming of animals falls under the Cruelty to Animals Acts, while maiming by others is additionally treated as criminal damage.
In Scotland one of the , James Gavin of Douglas, Lanarkshire, had his ears cut off for refusing to renounce his religious faith. In Japan, Gonsalo Garcia and his companions were similarly punished.
Notably in various jurisdictions of the Thirteen Colonies, even relatively minor crimes, such as hog stealing, were punishable by having one's ears nailed to the pillory and slit loose, or even cropped, a would be branded on top (for that crime, considered lèse-majesté, the older mirror punishment was boiling in oil), which was an example of western mutilation.Garraty, John A. (2003) Historical Viewpoints. New York City, New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Independence did not render American justice any less brutal. For example, in the Southwest Territory (what would become the state of Tennessee), an example of harsh 'frontier law' under the 1780 Cumberland Compact took place in 1793 when Judge John McNairy sentenced Nashville's first horse thief, John McKain Jr., to be fastened to a wooden stock for one hour, given 39 lashes, have his ears severed, and cheeks Branding persons with the letters "H" and "T".
Nebahne Yohannes, an unsuccessful claimant to the Ethiopian imperial throne, had his ears and nose severed before he was freed. This form of mutilation against unsuccessful claimants to thrones has been in use in the greater Middle East for thousands of years. To qualify as a king, formerly, one had to exemplify perfection. Obvious physical deformities such as missing noses, ears, or lips, are thereby sufficient disqualifications. The victim in these cases is typically freed alive to act as an example to others, and as no longer a threat.
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