Disembowelment encyclopedia topics

Disembowelment - 3 reference results

Disembowelment (evisceration) is the removing of some or all of the vital organs, usually from the abdomen.

Disembowelment as torture

If performed on a living creature, the results are, in virtually all cases, fatal. It has historically been used as a severe form of capital punishment. The last organs to be removed were invariably the heart and lungs so as to keep the condemned alive (and in pain) as long as possible.

In England, the punishment of being "hanged, drawn, and quartered" was typically used for men convicted of high treason. This referred to the practice of drawing a man by a hurdle (similar to a fence) through the streets, removing him from the hurdle and hanging him from the neck (but removing him before death), disemboweling him slowly on a wooden block by slitting open his abdomen, removing his entrails and his other organs, and then decapitating him and dividing the body into four pieces. The man's head and quarters would often be part boiled and displayed as a warning to others. As part of the disemboweling, the man was also typically castrated and emasculated and his genitals and entrails would be burned. Women, for modesty's sake, were instead burned alive. (However, on the Isle of Man this 'mercy' was denied and women convicted of treason were hanged, drawn and quartered as well.)
In the Netherlands and Belgium the vierendelen (literally "to divide in four"), a practice where the arms and legs were tied to horses and the abdomen was sliced open. This punishment was meant exclusively for the punishing of a person who had committed regicide.
In Japan, disembowelment played a part as a method of execution or of the ritualized suicide by a samurai. In killing themselves by this method, they were deemed to be free from the dishonor resulting from their crimes. The most common form of disembowelment was referred to in Japanese as seppuku (where the term "hara-kiri," literally "stomach cutting," is regarded as vulgar), involving two cuts across the abdomen, sometimes followed by pulling out one's own innards. The act of beheading, in most cases by one's best servant, was added to this ritual suicide in later times in order to shorten the suffering of the samurai or leader, an attempt at rendering the ritual more humane. In the English language, hara-kiri and seppuku are often treated as synonyms.

Animal slaughter

Evisceration is often a term used in relation of the slaughter of animals for food. The term actually refers to the removal of the internal organs of a slaughtered animal before it is butchered (separated into different cuts of meat by a butcher) for sale. In most documented procedures the animal being eviscerated is already dead.

Embalming

At various points in time and in some cultures, removal of the internal organs was performed as part of the embalming process.

Mummification

The process of mummification, especially as practised by the ancient Egyptians, entailed the removal of the internal organs prior to the preservation of the remainder of the body. The organs removed were then stored in canopic jars and placed in the tomb with the body.

References

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Disembowelment (band)

Disembowelment (often written diSEMBOWELMENT) was an Australian death/doom metal band from Melbourne that was formed in 1989 after the two piece grind band Bacteria featuring drummer Paul Mazziotta and guitarist/vocalist Renato Gallina changed its name and musical style. With Dean Ruprich from the Melbourne death metal band Necrotomy providing bass, the band released its first demo, "Mourning September" in 1990.

Career/Music Style

The band played very slowly (and occasionally with great speed), and relied equally on the atmospheric effects of droning guitars and constant riffing. Disembowelment is credited by many other doom metal groups as being the originators of death/doom, along with the band Winter. The band was known for its atmospheric chanting, slow riffs and spiritual dark elements present in their symphonic, heavily distorted style.

A track recorded for a compilation album (that featured Tim Aldridge of Abramelin on bass) won the band a deal with Relapse Records and they recorded a second demo entitled "Deep Sensory Perception into Aural Fate" with new second guitarist Jason Kells. With an extra track and bass parts from new member Matthew Skarajew, the demo was released as the EP "Dusk" by Relapse in 1992.

The 1993 album Transcendence Into The Peripheral featured a slowly executed drumming style, accompanied by death metal style vocals, chants and shrieks and passages of dark ambience. Slow guitar riffs and drum executions filled the album. The ability of Disembowelment to play slowly most of the time but then at some points execute very fast metal heightened interest in the band.

Disembowelment split up after the album's release. Gallina and Skarajew continued working together in the folk/ambient act called Trial Of The Bow, which Skarajew had originally initiated prior to joining Disembowelment. Skarajew and Mazziotta have since formed a grind band called Pulgar. In the late 90s, Kells formed a band called Firebird that later changed its named to Southern Cross.

The band's entire recorded catalogue was re-released as a double CD by Relapse in 2005.