Decapitation
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
With the early 19th century Disasters of War, Goya continued a tradition set in motion by French 17th artist Jacques Callot with his The Miseries and Disasters of War, both of them criticizing the horrors of war in their art
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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, improperly-administered execution by hanging 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. Decapitation is always fatal, as brain death occurs within seconds to minutes without the support of the organism's body. There is no way to provide life support for a severed head with current medical techniques.
The word decapitation can also refer, on occasion, to the removal of the head from a body that is already dead. This might be done to take the head as a trophy, for public display, to make the deceased more difficult to identify, or for other reasons.
In an analogous fashion, decapitation can also refer to the removal of the head of an organization. If, for example, the leader of a country were killed, that might be referred to as 'decapitation'.
See also
See also
- Beheading of St. John the Baptist
- Blood squirt, a result from a decapitation
- Dismemberment
- Flying guillotine, a legendary Chinese assassin's weapon
- Headhunting
- Head transplant
- Experiments in the Revival of Organisms, a 1940 film featuring one of Bryukhonenko's severed dog heads
- Internal decapitation, where the skull is dislodged from the spine; a typically, but not always, fatal injury
- List of methods of capital punishment
- Silent Woman
- Sword of Justice
- Visigothic Code
- Cephalophore, a martyred saint who supposedly carries his/her severed head
- Paul Loye, who studied movement of various parts of the body after decapitation
- Dr. Sergey Bryukhonenko, who kept decapitated dog heads alive for some time by perfusing them with oxygenated blood
- Dr. Vladimir Demikhov, who performed head transplantation on dogs
- Dr. Robert J. White, who performed head transplantation on monkeys
- List of people who were beheaded
- Mike the Headless Chicken
- Chinnamasta, a Hindu goddess who supposedly decapitates herself and holds her head in her hand
- Rahu, The floating head said to cause eclipses in ancient Hindu astronomy
