Sorry for ugly topic about mutilation

Sorry for an ugly mutilations topic..but it has been bugging me for some time.
I only seek information about its historic origins (if ever) and about its psychology.

Ever since I read books of wars , be it WW2 west and pacific, WW1, Vietnam, Indonesia independence fight, colonial independence wars in Africa , today's Afghanistan and Syria, I ALWAYS read an account of male victims whose genitalia have been cut off , and maybe placed here or there or thrown away.
Obviously it has been done by the (rebel but not always) force that really hated the force to which the victim belonged to.

I always thought it was a "modern" thing (20th century), but recently I read in a historical magazine that in one of the Welsh-English wars (around 1000 AD?) after a battle that the welsh won, the welsh women (!!) cut off the genitalia of a number of English slain men.

So it seems as if it is of "all times".


My question is:
1) Is it of all times ? What is the earliest recording of such a mutilation event ?
2) How come that a warrior man that hates the other tribe or unit , so much that he would not accept a truce, or ever make peace, or ever would sit and drink a beer to toast at the end of fights, in short ever would touch that man; why would that (disgusted) man be able to take down the pants of a slain and bloodied and dirty smelling opponent and touch his genitalia and cut it off ?
Compare to the nowadays muslim fanatics who do these ugly things in Syria today ; you proclaim all Christians to be filthy, and yet you dare to touch them?
It doesn't make sense.
3) Where do the mostly illiterate rebels get this idea from and why are they happy to copy it ? The indonesian rebels certainly would not have read about it in 1948, so it either must have been instructed by the japanese occupying forces, or it must have evolved from the muslim traditional rebel background. But how come it spreads out on a large scale?

 

An earlier report is in commentaries on the Old Testament.
In Exodus 17:8 Amalek kills the stragglers leaving Egypt.
In the recounting of this story in Deuteronomy 26 17-18 Rashi comments that Amalek's troups mutilated their victims in the way you describe. Based on writings of the early times.

 

The vast majority of people on the forum I would suggest are familiar with the Japanese atrocities in WW2 but very few I would suspect are aware that American servicemen in the Pacific mutilated Japanese soldiers i.e took trophy Skulls amd hung heads from trees etc.

 

As previous the mutilation of a beaten foe be he dead or alive as detailed elsewhere is as old as warfare it self , be it for religious purposes or as a weapon to strike fear in to a enemy or for money purposes (proof of killing to collect payment) some other well detailed events are the mutilation of archers after the fall of Sossions in the 100 Years War , the 30 Years War ,Aztec Wars in South America, well detailed after the Sand Creek massacre and not forgetting 19th century wars such as South Africa 1879 and the odd event on the North West Frontier , oh and 18th century wars in Canada , one post death body part use was on a aircraft carrier hit by a Kamikaze was when the pilots leg was removed from the crash ,his bone was taken by some engineers who on a lathe turned out a business converting the leg in to rings! This also occurred during the Indian Mutiny when Mutineers skulls were cleaned and converted in to cigar boxes , one came to auction in the early 1970s and I expect a few put away in old collections .
Then we have the SAS soldiers who were captured ,tortured and killed in the Rafdan in the 1960s whose body parts were removed .

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trophy_collecting

And from Herodotus,

Lovely, eh?