Dismemberment

The first detailed investigation of the human remains from the Carrowkeel passage tomb complex since their excavation in 1911 has revealed several new and important insights about life, death, and mortuary practice in Neolithic Ireland. Osteological analysis provides the first conclusive proof for the occurrence of dismemberment of the dead at Irish passage tombs, practised contemporarily with cremation as one of a suite of funerary treatments. The research also highlights changes in burial tradition at the complex over the course of the Neolithic. Providing a chronology for these changes allows them to be linked to wider trends in monument construction, which may relate to changes in both land use and climate during the period. Multi-isotope analysis hints at the presence of non-local individuals among the interred and the possible existence of different food sourcing areas at the onset of the later Neolithic period. Preliminary results from ancient DNA sequencing of six individual...

The present mythanalytical study investigates how the archetypic schemes of the "opus
alchemicum" emerge in Ioan Petru Culianu’s «Il gioco dello smeraldo» (1989). The first
part of the study classifies the emerald visitress’ body mutilation as a process of
"separatio". The second part of the study establishes a comparison between Culianu’s
fantastic short story and a vision of the alchemist Zosimos – a well-known text due to
a commentary by Carl Gustav Jung – which is grounded in the mythologeme of
dismemberment and in the symbolism of roundness.

yát púruṣaṃ ví ádadhuḥ katidhā́ ví akalpayan / múkhaṃ kím asya kaú bāhū́ kā́ ūrū́ pā́dā ucyete (Ригведа X.90.11) „Когато разделили човека (пуруша), на колко части го разпределили? / Какво казват била неговата уста, какво ръцете му, какво бедрата му, какво стъпалата му?“ Според космогоничния мит, изказан в Химна за пуруша (Ригведа X.90),  Битието възниква посредством разчленяването и жертвопринасянето от страна на боговете на пуруша или по-късно в текстовете на Брáхманите – на Праджапати. Праджапати, роден от космичното яйце в началото на съзиданието, в рамките на ведическия ритуал е разглеждан като разчленен бог, който се пресъздава отново чрез ритуалния акт. Чрез ежегодно жертвоприношение адептът се идентифицира с Праджапати и така участва в неговото (и в своето) ново изграждане. Точно както тялото на Праджапати трябва да се съедини, да се събере отново след творението и да се „излекува“ чрез ритуалните действия на боговете, така и атман – азът на човека, трябва да се направи цял и съвършен посредством ритуала. Как се описва това преживяване на жертващия, който се идентифицира с Праджапати, респективно с пуруша? Дали това преживяване е подобно на преживяванията на якутските шамани по време на инициация и дали конкретният ведически ритуал не е преди всичко ритуал на инициация? Усещането за разчленяване на тялото е свързано с усещане за загубата на мощта, способностите, идентичността. То представя смъртта, предхождаща раждането на нещо съвсем ново в ново и по-съвършено тяло. Подобни преживявания освен че представляват истинско предизвикателство за преживяващия, който отново трябва да съгради себе си, позволяват да се вникне в дълбочина в древната митология и да се съживи отново чрез собствения опит древния мит и ритуал. Познаването на мита и извършването на ритуала, от своя страна, задават образеца за повторно изграждане на себе си по модела на изграждането на целостта на Праджапати и на подредения космос. / yát púruṣaṃ ví ádadhuḥ katidhā́ ví akalpayan / múkhaṃ kím asya kaú bāhū́ kā́ ūrū́ pā́dā ucyete (Rigveda X.90.11). "When they divided the man (púruṣa), on how many parts did they divide him? What they say was his mouth, what his hands, what his thighs, his feet?" According to the cosmogonic myth expressed in the Hymn of the Púruṣa (Ṛgveda X.90), Being arises from the dismemberment and sacrifice of the púruṣa, or later, in the texts of the Brahmanas – of Prajāpati, by the gods. Prajāpati, born from the cosmic egg at the beginning of the creation, according to the Vedic ritual, is a dismembered god that is recreated again through the ritual act. Through annual sacrifice the adept is identified with Prajāpati and thus participates in Prajāpati’s (and in his own) construction. Just as the body of the Prajāpati must be reunited after creation, and "cured" by the ritual actions of the gods, ātmán – the very self of the man, must be made whole and perfect through the ritual. And before this re-construction there should be an experience of dismemberment of the body – somehow similar to the experience of the Yakutian shamans during the initiation.  The feeling of disintegration of the body is associated with a sense of loss of power, abilities, identity. It represents the death that precedes the birth of someone completely new in a new and more perfect body. Such experience, in addition to representing a real challenge to the experiencer who must rebuild himself, allows him to see the depths of ancient mythology and to revive again through his own experience the ancient myth and ritual. Knowing the myth and performing the ritual, on the other hand, give the procedure of rebuilding one’s own self according to the model of rebuilding the integrity of Prajāpati and the ordered cosmos.

The battlefields of the Bellum Civile (BC) are filled with scenes of brutal wounding, violent death, and complex bodily mutilations. Such episodes have been interpreted as reflections of contemporary aesthetic trends (Morford, 1973., Leigh, 1997., Dinter, 2013) and indications of the epic's violent authorial poetics (Masters, 1992., Most, 1992), often focusing upon the processes of decapitation and dismemberment (Dinter, 2010, 2013) which are recurring features of Lucan's narrative. However, it is surprising, in light of the imagery presented in the BC's opening, 'populumque potentem in sua uictrici conuersum uiscera dextra' a powerful nation attacking its own guts with a victorious sword hand (1.2-3), that the effects of penetrative wounding, as opposed to amputations, have not been subject to similarly rigorous examination. This paper aims to address this gap in the modern scholarship and will explore the constructive effects of wounding of the the BC's combatants and suggest that the behaviour of these bodies during and after wounding can further inform our study of Lucanian poetics. Using the figure of Scaeva (6.118-262; 10.542-546) as a case study, I will outline how processes of penetrative wounding re-enliven Lucan's combatants, who continue fighting, sometimes even turning their mutilated bodies into paradoxical weapons. I will discuss how Lucan's presentation of the insertion of weapons into the body and their subsequent effects differs from his depictions of dismemberment and suggest that these constructive and sometimes fantastical responses to penetrative wounding mirror other instances of metapoetic bodies reacting to the stimulus of foreign materials (6.667-719; 9.789-838). I will therefore suggest that the behaviour of these bodies following processes of external penetration can help inform our wider understanding of the body in combat, as well as the representation of these experiences of combative wounding in the Latin poetic tradition.

Pedestrian injuries such as traumatic amputations, transections and decapitations are rare in traffic accidents, but are directly connected to high vehicle impact speeds. This paper analyses a unique case of a traumatic limb amputation and a lateral decapitation from a pedestrian car collision.
The driver left the scene of the accident, but at the place of impact the car’s registration plate was found. After identifying the driver and performing a vehicle inspection, it was determined that the damage on the car does not show that the impact
speed was extremely high. The same conclusion was reached by the vehicle speed determination, according to accident investigation basic principles.

Abstract
Feelings are not merely an adjunct of cognition, but they are also embodied phenomena that construct what Judith Butler (2004) calls a ‘corporeal vulnerability’. This paper examines the relationship between corporeal vulnerability, embodied violence and forming ethical relations. The paper discusses how the disembodiment of violence is used to silence and obscure our feelings about the socio-political vulnerability of other bodies which results in a moral imaginary that simply cannot feel others. The result is ‘unfeeling’ an inability to [re]cognise the faces of others. [Un]feeling is a characteristic affect of violence that forecloses the possibility of a dialogical self emerging. Without dialogical self, transforming forms of violence and creating ethical relations are limited.

[RESUMEN] Esta investigación está centrada en mostrar las intersecciones entre el pasado precolombino del área Tumaco-La Tolita y el presente de un paisaje contemporáneo marcado por la violencia extrema del conflicto entre bandas criminales y las lógicas extractivas. A través de las figuras cerámicas inmersas en lógicas de fragmentación es posible establecer una continuidad en las gramáticas corporales del desmembramiento como una forma de afectar la integridad del cuerpo social, pero a su vez, de los cuerpos acuáticos y forestales en donde la violencia, y su representación, resultan mecanismos efectivos de reproducción ideológica, religiosa y política; tanto en un contexto arqueológico, como actual. [METODOLOGÍA] El trabajo recurre a una metodología híbrida -como el objeto de estudio- donde se incluye un estudio cualitativo de índole iconológica de casi 200 figuras cerámicas, y un componente teórico interdisciplinar que discute tres escenarios de fragmentación de las piezas: 1) encadenamientos rituales en el contexto de producción, 2) procesos sedimentarios e interacciones con agentes no humanos y, 3) prácticas extractivas en el marco de la guaquería y las economías intensivas ligadas a la deforestación y la minería. La fragmentación permite integrar problemas de índole patrimonial con aquellos ambientales y humanitarios: un modelo relacional aplicado.

[ABSTRACT] This research is focused on showing the intersections between the pre-Columbian past of the Tumaco-La Tolita area and the present of a contemporary landscape marked by the extreme violence of the conflict between criminal activity and extractive logics. Through the ceramic figures immersed in fragmentation logics it is possible to establish a continuity in the corporal grammars of dismemberment as a way of affecting the integrity of the social body, but at the same time, of the aquatic and forest bodies where violence, and their representation, are effective mechanisms of ideological, religious and political reproduction; both in an archaeological context, and current.  [METHODOLOGY] The work uses a hybrid methodology -as the object of study- which includes a qualitative study of an iconological nature of almost 200 ceramic figures, and an interdisciplinary theoretical component that discusses three scenarios of fragmentation of the pieces: 1) ritual chainings in the context of production, 2) sedimentary processes and interactions with non-human agents and, 3) extractive practices in the framework of  plunder and intensive economies linked to deforestation and mining. Fragmentation allows integrating problems of a patrimonial nature with those of the environment and humanitarian: an applied relational model.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate major findings in the recovery and analysis of victims, where dismemberment is the cause of death, but also a manner of torture within the context of the armed conflict in Colombia. It is intended to provide useful analytical information and to contribute to the correct interpretation of forensic analyses in cases of dismemberment and/or in the examination of human remains within the context of the Colombian armed conflict. The importance of including dismemberment as an opinion in the forensic report by correlating the findings on the body, the grave and context of the information available, and the accounts on the facts is encouraged. Otherwise these cases will be recorded as undetermined cause of death, which does not reflect the brutality of the war.

The first detailed investigation of the human remains from the Carrowkeel passage tomb complex since their excavation in 1911 has revealed several new and important insights about life, death, and mortuary practice in Neolithic Ireland. Osteological analysis provides the first conclusive proof for the occurrence of dismemberment of the dead at Irish passage tombs, practised contemporarily with cremation as one of a suite of funerary treatments. The research also highlights changes in burial tradition at the complex over the course of the Neolithic. Providing a chronology for these changes allows them to be linked to wider trends in monument construction, which may relate to changes in both land use and climate during the period. Multi-isotope analysis hints at the presence of non-local individuals among the interred and the possible existence of different food sourcing areas at the onset of the later Neolithic period. Preliminary results from ancient DNA sequencing of six individual...

The idea of ‘progress’ was undoubtedly at the heart of the experience of the Moderns, guiding at the same time their thought, the values that they gave themselves, the hopes that animated them and of innumerable justifications that they found for all the processes of dispossession, disqualification and dismemberment that they implemented. Starting with William James’s diagnosis of the hold the idea of ‘progress’ has over us, and following his proposition that this idea is at work in the world itself, in the ecological and social ravages that it guides and justifies, this article aims to analyse the political and speculative effects of the notion of progress and to propose, through what we call an ‘ecology of trust’, other ways of collectively composing our modes of existence.