On cutting off noses and pulling out beards: Face as a medium of crime and punishment in medieval Dubrovnik
On cutting off noses and pulling out beards: Face as a medium of crime and punishment in medieval Dubrovnik

Author(s): Nella Lonza
Subject(s): Criminal Law, Local History / Microhistory, Criminology, 13th to 14th Centuries, 15th Century, Penal Policy
Published by: Hrvatski institut za povijest
Keywords: crime; Dubrovnik; Middle Ages; mutilation; body; nose; beard; symbolism; gender;
Summary/Abstract: In historiography dealing with criminality, much has been written on punishment as a social message communicated in various ways, among other things, by using a convict’s body as a medium (face branding, mutilation, etc.). By analysing the criminal procedures of medieval Dubrovnik and comparative material from Dalmatia and other European communities, the author poses an inverse question and investigates how the offender sometimes used the victim’s body as a medium for conveying his “message”. Hair cropping (and related forced removal of female headgear), pulling out of the beard, and nose amputation may be referred to as “coded crimes” because accent was given to symbolism over the bodily injury and pain. Sharing the same value system, the victim and his social environment could easily “read” the offender’s message from such a crime.

• Details
• Contents