As we know, lip-to-lip kissing is a very popular act of romance all around the world. Is it really? The kissing is widely glorified by our fictions and movies but according to a study of 168 cultures from around the world, only less than half of all societies kiss with their lips in a romantic sense. Then why really humans kiss lip-to-lip? Why isn’t it universal? And what do the cultures contribute towards this act?
There are two theories pertaining to human kissing. One is, as babies we have an innate liking for lip touching. This can also be seen as an association between lip and breastfeeding. That relation keeps us from touching lips even after we become adults.
Another theory is about related to the evolution of humans and their primitive way of food transfer. It is believed that our ancestors used to pre-chew food for their babies and transferred it directly into their mouths. It is known as ‘premastication food transfer.’ Yes, just like birds and some animals do around us today. We can see this in chimpanzees who are considered closest to humans in terms of evolution theory and thus it has more reception among scientists.
But there are some other theories helped in evolving our ‘kissing culture’ says an article published by BBC.
According to William Jankowiak, a professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the key to the human universal kissing, or the absence of it, is that people’s sensuality can be met in many ways other than kissing. William Jankowiak is also the person behind the study that showed only 46% of all societies in the world kiss with their lips in a romantic sense.
Some cultures- not some, 54% if we say specifically- use other ways to show intimacy, says Sheril Kirshenbaum American science writer and the executive director of Science Debate. “There’s the Malay kiss that Darwin described, where women would squat down on the ground and men would kind of hang over them and take a quick sniff of each other – take a sample of their partner’s scent.”
Another way of sharing romance where lovers kiss by sitting face to face and nibbling at each other’s eye lashes is very common in Trobriand Islands, off the east coast of Papua New Guinea. This may not seem hugely romantic for our readers, but romance is basically a feeling and people of Trobriand can feel it through this act. Moreover, regardless the form, the aim of kissing is to show intimacy, love and care, right?
An interesting thing about lip-to-lip kissing is, it is almost a unique human act. We see no animals or birds kiss using lips pressing one against another. And this is in contradiction to the theory of kissing related to evolution because, if so, why don’t animals kiss this way?
Melissa Hogenboom, a senior science journalist at BBC Global News answers this question with some citations to the power of sniffing in animals. Most of the animals have far more sophisticated senses of smell than humans, which helps them to get useful information like diet, presence of disease, mood and relatedness while sniffing their partner. But for humans, we need more close contact for this and so we always pursue a form of contact with the partner which resembles to kissing.
Anyway, kissing is a basic and easily understandable form of showing intimacy and love. So, try to give a kiss to your partner right away. Happy Life!
Source: BBC