Decapitation

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The Beheading of Cosmas and Damian, by Fra Angelico

Decapitation (from Latin, caput, capitis, meaning head), or beheading, is the removal of a living organism's head. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, or knife, or by means of a guillotine. Accidental decapitation can be the result of an explosion, automobile or industrial accident or other violent injury. Suicide by decapitation is rare, but not unknown. In 2003 a British man killed himself by means of a home-made guillotine, constructed over a period of several weeks.

There´s a heated argument about whether those who say that separation of the head from the rest of the human body results in death and those who contend their thesis, although statistical studies of survival rate lean against the latter group: there is heavy bleeding from both the head and decapitated body, causing a massive drop in blood pressure and rapid loss of consciousness followed quickly by brain death. Even if the bleeding were stopped, the lack of circulation to supply oxygen to the brain would rapidly lead to brain death. No known medical emergency treatment can save a decapitated patient.

An even more gruesome issue is whether a decapitated head retains consciousness after separation from the body. The issue has been debated many times, especially in the context of whether beheading is or is not a humane form of execution (see below). No definitive answer has ever emerged. Many have argued that loss of consciousness would be virtually instantaneous, either as a result of the massive drop in cerebral blood pressure, or because of the impact of the severing implement. Nevertheless, anecdotal evidence, of varying degrees of credibility, has circulated for centuries that severed heads may, under some circumstances, retain consciousness for at least a few seconds.

The body of a decapitated chicken was once known to live for an additional 18 months. (See Miracle Mike the Headless Chicken).

The word decapitation can also refer, on occasion, to the removal of the head of someone who is already dead, i.e., to a corpse. This would have probably made the most sense for the purpose of displaying the head to prove the fact of the individual's death or to instill fear in the populace by illustrating the likely fate of an enemy of the authorities.

Decapitation throughout history

Beheading—Facsimile of a Miniature on Wood in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster: in folio, Basle, 1552.

Decapitation has been used as a form of capital punishment for millennia. The terms capital offence, capital crime, and capital punishment derive from the punishment for serious offences being the removal of their head. Political prisoners (labelled traitors) and serious criminals often had their heads removed and placed on public display for a period of time. For instance, in medieval England, the heads were placed on spikes along the walls of the Tower of London. On the other hand, execution by beheading with a sword (or axe, a military weapon as well) was considered the "honourable" way to die for an aristocrat, who, presumably being a warrior, could generally expect to die by the sword in any event; in England for example, it was a privilege of noblemen to be beheaded. This would be distinguished from a "dishonourable" death on the gallows or through burning at the stake.

If the headsman's axe or sword was sharp and his aim was true, decapitation was a quick and relatively painless form of death. If the instrument was blunt or the execution clumsy, however, multiple strokes might be required to sever the head. The person to be executed was therefore advised to give a gold coin to the headsman so that he did his job with care.

  • Decapitation by guillotine was a common, mechanized form of execution invented shortly before the French Revolution (although an earlier version of the guillotine, the gibbet, was used in Britain until the 17th century). The aim was that only one form of execution, involving no torture, should exist.The executioner, after chopping off the head, would hold it up to the crowd. It was believed that the head could still see for around ten seconds. They held the head up so it could see the crowd laughing at it before it fully died. It was used in France on an unprecedented 'industrial' scale during the French Revolution and remained the normal judicial method in peace time, in use until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981.
  • Many German states had used guillotine-like device, Fallbeil, since the 17th and 18th centuries, and decapitation by guillotine was the usual means of execution in Germany until abolition of the death penalty in 1949. In Nazi Germany, guillotine was reserved to criminal convicts; it is estimated some 40,000 persons were guillotined in Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. Note that this number includes resistance fighters both in Nazi Germany and in countries that were occupied by them. If these resistance fighters were not part of any regular army, then they were considered as common criminals and "terrorist" and were in many cases taken to Germany and decapitated. Decapitation was considered a "dishonourable" death, unlike an "honourable" death e.g. by execution by firing squad.
  • In Scandinavia, decapitation was the usual means of carrying out the capital punishment. Noblemen were beheaded with a sword, commoners with an axe. The last decapitation in Sweden 1910 was carried out with a guillotine.
  • It is of note that in the biblical Book of Revelation beheading is named as a method of execution of Christian martyrs during a great persecution (Rev. 20:4). There is no historical record of such an event, so certain commentators believe that this verse refers to the last great persecution of the church that some Christians believe will occur shortly before the Second Coming of Christ.
  • In traditional China decapitation was considered a more severe form of punishment than strangulation although strangulation led to more prolonged suffering. This was because the Chinese believed that their bodies were gifts from their parents and that it was very disrespectful to their ancestors to return one's body to the grave dismembered.
  • In Japan, decapitation was historically performed as the second step in seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment). After the victim had sliced his own stomach open, another warrior would strike his head off from behind with a katana to hasten death and to ease the suffering. As skill was involved, only the most trusted was honoured to take the part. In the late Sengoku period, decapitation was performed as soon as the man to carry out seppuku had made the slightest wound to his stomach. Decapitation was also the highest form of punishment. One of the most brutal forms of decapitation was that of a samurai, Ishida Mitsunari, who had betrayed Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was buried in the ground and his head was sawed off with a blunt wooden saw. This punishment was abolished in the early Meiji era.

Decapitation in the modern world

The use of decapitation has been discontinued in many parts of the world in part because of suspicion that the severed head may in certain cases continue to be alive to some extent and capable of feeling pain. Some evidence for this was gathered by studying the presence of death-related chemicals in the brains of beheaded animals. There have also been many apocryphal stories from France about the severed heads of guillotined persons that would change facial expression or move their lips. Certainly another major reason for the end of the practice of beheading is the violent and messy nature of the practice.

Decapitation by sword has in modern times occurred in jurisdictions subject to Islamic Sharia, and by militant Islamists during the US-led invasion of Iraq. As of 2005, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran and Qatar had laws allowing decapitation but only Saudi Arabia was known to practice the sentence. Militant Islamic groups have, in recent years, begun carrying out beheadings with small knives, some as small as pocket knives.

Less orthodox instances of decapitation have also occurred in recent times in some areas of Colombia. Right wing paramilitary groups such as the AUC have sometimes used this method to intimidate local populations and it has not been uncommon for their Left wing guerrilla enemies in the FARC as well as criminal gangs of druglords to also make limited use of decapitation on occasion. The primary means of decapitation in these cases has been the use of machete or chainsaw.

Terrorist group Abu Sayyaf is known to practice beheading in The Philippines.

Chechen rebels were known to practice beheading against the captured Russian Army soldiers during the First Chechen War. Four Western telecommunication workers (three Britons and a New Zealander) who were taken hostages for ransom in Chechnya in 1998 were eventually beheaded and their heads found by the side of the road [1].

Among Jews, orthodox interpretations of the Talmud's Sanhdedrin 57a calls for the decapitation of non-Jews who fail to follow the Noahide Laws. [2], a set of seven laws that act as "general categories of commandments, each containing many components and details" [3]. It should be noted, however, that Rabbinic Judaism has never issued this punishment(per Novak, 1983:28ff.

Some famous people who have been beheaded

Biblical

Celtic Saints

Islamic

China

England

Colonial Brazil

French Revolution

Italy

Mythological

Scotland

Weimar Republic

Nazi Germany

Modern era

It is often stated that actress Jayne Mansfield was decapitated in the automobile accident that took her life in 1967, but this is untrue.

Iraq Terrorist Decapitation Victims

Fictional Characters

Other meanings of the word

  • The term 'decapitation' is also used in politics, and other organisational structures as meaning to remove the leaders, i.e. the 'head', of the organisation in the hope or expectation that it would flounder without direction from the top. This is a figurative usage, rather than the literal meanings above.
  • 'Decapitation' is similarly used as a military term to refer to the targeting of the leader of a country or army, such as the United States' "decapitation attempt" against Saddam Hussein. [5]
  • The term decapitation strike used in the theory of nuclear warfare also derives from this meaning, when aimed at a command/control center, or capital city. The term was also used in the media with regards to the above attempt on Hussein in 2003.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Decapitation.
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