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Valentine's Day kisses continue odd human tradition
Source: Agencies |
February 15, 2012, Wednesday
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A KISS may be just a kiss, but when sweethearts pucker up on Valentine's Day, they will be participating in one of the most bizarre and unlikely of human activities.
Experts say kissing evolved from sniffing, which people did centuries ago to learn about each other.
"At some point, they slipped and ended up on the lips, and they thought that was a lot better," said Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University and an authority on the evolution of human kissing. "You got a lot more bang for your buck."
For most of early human history, smell was more important than any other sense for human relationships, said Sheril Kirshenbaum, author of "The Science of Kissing." People would use smell to determine a person's mood, health and social status, she said.
"There were a lot of sniff greetings," said Kirshenbaum, director of the Project on Energy Communication at the University of Texas.
"They would brush the nose across the face, because there are scent glands on our faces, and over time the brush of the face became a brush of the lips, and the social greeting was born."
Romantic kissing is believed to have begun in India, where an epic poem called the Mahabharata - believed to have been written about 1000BC - included history's first recognizable descriptions of romantic kissing.
"She set her mouth to my mouth and made a noise that produced pleasure in me," the poem said.
Historians believe that at the time, romantic kissing was unknown in the rest of the world, and that it was brought to Europe by Alexander the Great.
When European missionaries went to Africa, Asia and Oceania in the 19th century, they popularized kissing in places that found it abhorrent. "They carried kissing as well as the word of God," Bryant said.
Kissing today takes on many meanings, according to Chicago relationship counselor Jeffrey Sumber, who has written on the social importance of kissing.
"Kissing is ... the bridge between our words and our actions," he said.
Experts say kissing evolved from sniffing, which people did centuries ago to learn about each other.
"At some point, they slipped and ended up on the lips, and they thought that was a lot better," said Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University and an authority on the evolution of human kissing. "You got a lot more bang for your buck."
For most of early human history, smell was more important than any other sense for human relationships, said Sheril Kirshenbaum, author of "The Science of Kissing." People would use smell to determine a person's mood, health and social status, she said.
"There were a lot of sniff greetings," said Kirshenbaum, director of the Project on Energy Communication at the University of Texas.
"They would brush the nose across the face, because there are scent glands on our faces, and over time the brush of the face became a brush of the lips, and the social greeting was born."
Romantic kissing is believed to have begun in India, where an epic poem called the Mahabharata - believed to have been written about 1000BC - included history's first recognizable descriptions of romantic kissing.
"She set her mouth to my mouth and made a noise that produced pleasure in me," the poem said.
Historians believe that at the time, romantic kissing was unknown in the rest of the world, and that it was brought to Europe by Alexander the Great.
When European missionaries went to Africa, Asia and Oceania in the 19th century, they popularized kissing in places that found it abhorrent. "They carried kissing as well as the word of God," Bryant said.
Kissing today takes on many meanings, according to Chicago relationship counselor Jeffrey Sumber, who has written on the social importance of kissing.
"Kissing is ... the bridge between our words and our actions," he said.
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