A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal, or object. The cultural connotations associated with kissing vary significantly between different societies and contexts. Depending on the culture and circumstances, a kiss can express a wide range of emotions, such as love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, sexual arousal, affection, respect, a wish for peace or good luck, as well as numerous other meanings. In some situations, kissing takes on the function of a greeting or a ritual, formal, or symbolic gesture indicating religious devotion, institutional respect, or an act of sacramental nature.
History
Anthropologists disagree on whether kissing is an instinctual or learned behaviour. Those who believe kissing to be an instinctual behaviour cite similar behaviours in other animals such as bonobos, which are known to kiss after fighting - possibly to restore peace. Others believe that it is a learned behaviour, having evolved from activities such as suckling or premastication in early human cultures passed on to modern humans. The fact that not all human cultures kiss is used as an argument against kissing being an instinctual behaviour in humans; only around 90% of the human population is believed to practice kissing.
The earliest reference to kissing-like behavior comes from the Vedas, Sanskrit scriptures that informed Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, around 3,500 years ago, according to Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University who specialized in the history of the kiss. However, recent studies challenge the belief that kissing originated in South Asia around 1500 BCE, arguing that there is no single point of origin in historical times. Figurines have been found that indicate kissing may have been practiced in prehistory. It has been suggested that Neandertals and humans kissed. Evidence from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt suggests that kissing was documented as early as 2500 BCE. Kissing was present in both romantic and familial contexts in ancient Mesopotamia, but it was subject to social regulation, and public display of the sexual aspect of kissing was discouraged. Kissing also had a role in rituals. The act of kissing may have unintentionally facilitated the transmission of orally transmitted microorganisms, potentially leading to disease. Advances in ancient DNA extraction have revealed pathogen genomes in human remains, including those transmitted through saliva. The shift in dominant lineages of the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) during the Bronze Age implies that cultural practices like romantic-sexual kissing could have contributed to its transmission. Ancient Mesopotamian medical texts mention a disease called bu'shanu, which may have been related to HSV-1 infection. While kissing itself was not directly associated with disease transmission in Mesopotamia, certain cultural and religious factors governed its practice.
Both lip and tongue kissing are mentioned in Sumerian poetry:
Kissing is described in the surviving ancient Egyptian love poetry from the New Kingdom, found on papyri excavated at Deir el-Medina:
The earliest reference to kissing in the Old Testament is in , when Jacob deceives his father to obtain his blessing:
features the first man-woman kiss in the Bible, when Jacob flees from Esau and goes to the house of his uncle Laban:
Much later, there is the oft-quoted verse from :
In Cyropaedia (370 BC), Xenophon wrote about the Persian custom of kissing in the lips upon departure while narrating the departure of Cyrus the Great () as a boy from his Median kinsmen. According to Herodotus (5th century BC), when two Persians meet, the greeting formula expresses their equal or inequal status. They do not speak; rather, equals kiss each other on the mouth, and in the case where one is a little inferior to the other, the kiss is given on the cheek.
During the later Classical period, affectionate mouth-to-mouth kissing was first described in the Hindu epic the Mahabharata.
Anthropologist Vaughn Bryant argues kissing spread from India to Europe after Alexander the Great conquered parts of Punjab in northern India in 326 BCE.
Kissing was not always an indication of romantic love, but also could show respect and rank as it was used in Medieval Europe. For example, nobles would finalize a legal or diplomatic agreement by kissing each other. Contemporary views held that breaths contained aspects of a person's soul so a lip-to-lip kiss was believed to lead to the two souls intermingling.
The study of kissing started sometime in the nineteenth century and is called philematology, which has been studied by people including Cesare Lombroso, Ernest Crawley, Charles Darwin, Edward Burnett Tylor and modern scholars such as Elaine Hatfield."The science of kissing" , CNN, Feb. 14, 2012"Chemical attraction: The science of kissing" , Medill Reports, Feb. 14, 2009
Etymology The Romans had several words for kissing. Kissing the hand or cheek was called an . Kissing on the lips with mouth closed was called a , which was used between relatives. A kiss of passion was called a .Jones, Terry "The Ancient World According to Terry Jones (Love and Sex)" (1998)
The English word kiss word comes from Old English ('to kiss'), in turn from ('a kiss').
Types Kristoffer Nyrop identified a number of types of kisses, including kisses of love, affection, peace, respect, and friendship. He notes, however, that the categories are somewhat contrived and overlapping, and some cultures have more kinds, including the French with twenty and the Germans with thirty.Nyrop, Kristoffer. The Kiss and its History, Sands & Co., London (1901) Read full text
Expression of affection Kissing another person's lips has become a common expression of affection or warm greeting in many cultures worldwide. Yet in certain cultures, kissing was introduced only through European settlement, before which it was not a routine occurrence. Such cultures include certain indigenous peoples of Australia, the Tahitians, and many tribes in Africa.Dyer, Tristeleton T.F. "The History of Kissing", The American Magazine, vol. 14 1882, pp. 611–614
A kiss can also be used to express feelings without an erotic element but can be nonetheless "far deeper and more lasting", writes Nyrop. He adds that such kisses can be expression of love "in the widest and most comprehensive meaning of the word, bringing a message of loyal affection, gratitude, compassion, sympathy, intense joy, and profound sorrow."
Nyrop writes that the most common example is the "intense feeling which knits parents to their offspring", but he adds that kisses of affection are not only common between parents and children, but also between other members of the same family, which can include those outside the immediate family circle, "everywhere where deep affection unites people." The tradition is written of in the Bible, as when Esau met Jacob after a long separation, he ran towards him, fell on his neck, and kissed him (), Moses greeted his father-in-law and kissed him (), and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law before leaving her (). The family kiss was traditional with the Romans and kisses of affection are often mentioned by the early Greeks, as when Odysseus, on reaching his home, meets his faithful shepherds.
Affection can be a cause of kissing "in all ages in grave and solemn moments," notes Nyrop, "not only among those who love each other, but also as an expression of profound gratitude. When the Apostle Paul took leave of the elders of the congregation at Ephesus, "they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him" (Acts 20:37)." Kisses can also be exchanged between total strangers, as when there is a profound sympathy with or the warmest interest in another person.
Folk poetry has been the source of affectionate kisses where they sometimes played an important part, as when they had the power to cast off spells or to break bonds of witchcraft and sorcery, often restoring a man to his original shape. Nyrop notes the poetical stories of the "redeeming power of the kiss are to be found in the literature of many countries, especially, for example, in the Old French Arthurian romances (Lancelot, Guiglain) in which the princess is changed by evil arts into a dreadful dragon, and can only resume her human shape in the case of a knight being brave enough to kiss her." In the reverse situation, in the tale of "Beauty and the Beast", a transformed prince then told the girl that he had been bewitched by a wicked fairy, and could not be recreated into a man unless a maid fell in love with him and kissed him, despite his ugliness.
A kiss of affection can also take place after death. In , it is written that when Jacob was dead, "Joseph fell upon his father's face and wept upon him and kissed him." And it is told of Abu Bakr, Muhammad's first disciple, father-in-law, and successor, that, when the prophet was dead, he went into the latter's tent, uncovered his face, and kissed his forehead. Nyrop writes that "the kiss is the last tender proof of love bestowed on one we have loved, and was believed, in ancient times, to follow mankind to the nether world."
Kissing on the lips can be a physical expression of affection or love between two people in which the sensations of touch, taste, and smell are involved. According to the psychologist Menachem Brayer, although many "mammals, birds, and insects exchange caresses" which appear to be kisses of affection, they are not kisses in the human sense.
Surveys indicate that kissing is the second most common form of physical intimacy among United States adolescents (after holding hands), and that about 85% of 15 to 16-year-old adolescents in the US have experienced it.
Affection between friends or family can sometimes be expressed by a kiss on the lips. Unlike kissing for love, a friendly kiss has no sexual connotation. The kiss on the lips is a practice that can be found in the time of patriarchs (Bible).William Smith, Smith's Bible Dictionary, Kiss , UK, 1988 In Ancient Greece, the kiss on the mouth was used to express a concept of equality between people of the same rank.Marine Gasc, racontemoilhistoire.com, Le bisou , France, January 20, 2016 In the Middle Ages, the kiss of peace was recommended by the Catholic Church.Yannick Carré, Le baiser sur la bouche au Moyen Âge : rites, symboles, mentalités, à travers les textes et les images, XIe-XVe siècles, Le Léopard d'Or, 1992, page 357 The kiss on the lips was also common among knights. The gesture has again become popular with young people, particularly in England.Eric Anderson, Adi Adams, Ian Rivers, Archives of Sexual Behavior "I Kiss Them Because I Love Them": The Emergence of Heterosexual Men Kissing in British Institutes of Education , UK, April 2012, Volume 41. 2, pages 421–430Journal 7sur7.be, Nouvelle tendance: des bisous sur la bouche entre amis! , Belgium, October 29, 2010 archived version
Kiss of friendship The kiss is also commonly used in American and European culture as a salutation between friends or acquaintances. The friendly kiss until recent times usually occurred only between ladies, but today it is also common between men and women, especially if there is a great difference in age. According to Nyrop, up until the 20th century, "it seldom or never takes place between men, with the exception, however, of royal personages," although he notes that in former times the "friendly kiss was very common with us between man and man as well as between persons of opposite sexes." In guilds, for example, it was customary for the members to greet each other "with hearty handshakes and smacking kisses," and, on the conclusion of a meal, people thanked and kissed both their hosts and hostesses.
Romantic