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Mutilation
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==Mutilation as human punishment== <!-- This section is linked from [[Dock]] --> In times when even judicial [[Corporal punishment|physical punishment]] was still commonly allowed to cause not only intense pain and [[public humiliation]] during the administration but also to inflict permanent physical damage, or even deliberately intended to mark the criminal for life by [[cropping (punishment)|cropping]] or [[human branding|branding]], one of the common anatomical target areas not normally under permanent cover of clothing (so particularly merciless in the long term) were the ear(s). [[File:Un pauvre averti Gontran - Frédégonde ordonne la mutilation d'Olericus.jpg|thumb|[[Fredegund]] ordering the mutilation of Olericus{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}]] In England, for example, various pamphleteers attacking the religious views of the Anglican episcopacy under [[William Laud]], the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], had their ears cut off for those writings: in 1630 [[Alexander Leighton]] and in 1637 still other [[Puritans]], [[John Bastwick]], [[Henry Burton (theologian)|Henry Burton]], and [[William Prynne]]. In Scotland one of the [[Covenanter]]s, James Gavin of [[Douglas, South Lanarkshire|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 [[cropping (punishment)|cropped]], a [[counterfeit]]er 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.<ref>Garraty, John A. (2003) Historical Viewpoints. New York City, New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.</ref> [[American Revolutionary War|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 one hour for 39 lashes, have his ears cut off and cheeks [[Branding persons|branded]] with the letters "H" and "T". [[Nebahne Yohannes]], an unsuccessful claimant to the [[Emperor of Ethiopia|Ethiopian imperial throne]], had his ears and nose cut off, yet was then freed. This form of mutilation against unsuccessful claimants to thrones has been in use in middle-eastern regions 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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