Anatomy of a Kiss
A kiss — the pairing or touching of lips — is typically an expression of affection, greeting or farewell, and intensely as an expression of romantic affection or sexual desire. Parents kiss children, worshippers kiss religious artifacts and couples kiss each other. Kisses take on a number of figurative meanings in folklore, literature, and art, ranging from the betrayal — with Judas’ kiss — to the life-giving symbolism of movies such as The Little Mermaid.
The word comes from Old English cyssan ‘to kiss,’ in turn from coss ‘a kiss.’ Anthropologists report that 90% of the people in the world kiss. So how does one gesture come to signify affection, celebration, grief, comfort and respect, world-wide ?
Evolution
Anthropologists have yet to reach a consensus as to whether kissing is a learned or an instinctive behavior, but many believe it may be related to grooming behavior seen between other animals, or a result of mothers premasticating food for their children. After the babies learned to eat solid food, their mothers may have kissed them to comfort them or to show affection.
Bonobo apes, which are closely related to humans, kiss one another frequently. Regardless of sex or status within their social groups, bonobos kiss to reduce tension after disputes, to reassure one another, and to develop social bonds. Many mammals lick one another’s faces, and birds touch one another’s bills. In some cases, the animals are grooming one another rather than kissing, while others are smelling scent glands located on face or in mouth. In these manners, they’re often showing signs of trust and affection or developing social bonds.
Biology
Kissing allows prospective mates to smell and taste each other’s pheromones for biological compatibility. Women are subconsciously more attracted to men whose major complex portion of their genome is different from their own, leading to offspring with resistance to a greater number of diseases with a better chance of survival. This explains why couples are more likely to bond if they have the right ‘chemistry.’ A study at the University of Albany found that women use kissing as a tool to find the right father for their children and judge men exclusively on the quality of the first kiss they share.
Effects of Kissing
Romantic kissing affects most people profoundly. The Kinsey Institute describes a person’s response to kissing as a combination of 3 factors :
#1 - Psychological response depends on your mental and emotional state and how you feel about the person kissing you. Kissing someone you want to kiss will generally encourage feelings of attachment and affection.
#2 - Your body physically reacts to being kissed. Most people like to be touched, which is part of your body’s response to kissing. But kissing also affects everything from your blood to your brain.
#3 - The culture in which you grew up plays a big part in how you feel about kissing. In most Western societies, people are conditioned to, look forward to and enjoy kissing. The behavior of the people around you and other social factors can dramatically affect how you respond to being kissed.
When a mother kisses a child’s bruise to make it feel better, psychological, physical and social factors play a part in the reaction to both. The same is true when friends kiss as a greeting, worshippers kiss religious symbols or siblings kiss and make up after an argument. No matter the type of kiss, they have one thing in common — they inspire feelings we think of as positive.
Manner of Kisses and Culture
Affection
In modern Western culture, kissing is most commonly an expression of affection, unlike many parts of the world where kissing is viewed as a means of respecting others. In Middle Eastern countries till recent times, kissing was only considered proper when between 2 men, 2 women, or parents kissing their children. Kissing was not looked upon as a sexual expression in the Middle East.
In Eastern European countries up to recent times, kissing between 2 men on the lips as a greeting or a farewell was as normal as the modern Western handshake. This custom has nearly died out due to Western influence. In the past, kissing wasn’t considered sexual in Slavic and Muslim countries.
Between people of close acquaintance, a kiss, often reciprocal, is offered as a greeting or farewell. This kind of kiss is typically made by brief contact of puckered lips to the skin of the cheek or no contact at all and merely performed in the air near the cheek with the cheeks touching. This is a common greeting in European and Latin American countries between a man and a woman or between 2 women, but also by 2 men in parts of Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, such as Argentina. But in most Western societies it’s often more acceptable for women to kiss each other than men kissing each other.
People sometimes kiss children to comfort them or show affection, and vice versa, usually on the forehead or cheek.
As an expression of romantic affection or sexual desire, kissing involves two people pressing their lips together, usually with much more intensity, and for a considerably longer period of time.
Symbolic Kissing
A ‘blown’ kiss using actions of the hand and the mouth to convey affection, typically when parting or when the partners are physically distant but can see each other.
Asymmetry in Kissing
To avoid a clash of noses while kissing, couples often turn their faces slightly to one side, thereby orienting their heads at an angle with respect to each other. Writing in Nature, psychologist Onur Güntürkün observed couples kissing in public places such as airports and parks. His research demonstrated that by a 2:1 ratio the direction of turn is more frequently to the right than to the left.
The History of the Kiss
Historians don’t know much about the early history of kissing, but 4 Vedic Sanskrit texts written in India around 1500 B.C. appear to describe people kissing.
Kiss painted by Francesco Hayez in the 19th century. Prior the 19th century,kisses did not appear frequently in Western artwork.
The Indian poem “Mahabharata” describes kissing on the lips as a sign of affection. The “Mahabharata” was passed down verbally before being written down around 350 A.D. The Indian religious text “Vatsyayana Kamasutram,” or the “Kama Sutra,” also describes a variety of kisses, written in the 6th century A.D. Some anthropologists theorize that the Greeks learned about it when Alexander the Great invaded India in 326 B.C.
There aren’t many records of kissing in the Western world until the days of the Roman Empire. Romans used kisses to greet friends and family members, citizens kissed their rulers’ hands, and people kissed their romantic partners. The Romans distinguished 3 different types of kisses :
Osculum — a friendship kiss on the cheek
Basium — a kiss of affection on the lips
Savolium (or savium) — a lover’s deep kiss
The Romans also initiated several kissing traditions that have lasted to the present day. Couples became betrothed by kissing passionately in front of a group of people, which is likely why modern couples kiss at the end of wedding ceremonies. Kisses were used to seal legal and business agreements, and as part of political campaigns.
Christians often greeted one another with an ‘osculum pacis,’ or holy kiss. Tradition claimed the holy kiss caused a transfer of spirit between the two people kissing. Most researchers believe the purpose of this kiss was to establish familial bonds between the members of the church and to strengthen the community.
The Protestant Reformation removed the kiss from Protestant services entirely in the 1500’s. The holy kiss doesn’t typically play a role in modern Christian religious services, although some Christians do kiss religious symbols, including the Pope’s ring.
Until the 1400s, kissing under mistletoe was a major commitment, often meaning that a couple was engaged.
At the Diocleia festival at Megara in honour of Diocles, lover of Philolaus, a kissing contest was held in which boys would kiss a male judge, who awarded a laurel wreath to the boy he deemed the best kisser.
In the gospels, Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss on the cheek shortly before his crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane — a subversive use of the kiss.
Anatomy of a Kiss
Kissing is a complex behavior that requires significant muscular coordination — in fact, a total of 20 muscles working cooperatively. The most important muscle involved is the orbicularis oris — known as the kissing muscle — which runs around the outside of your mouth and used to pucker the lips. The tongue can also be an important part of the kiss.
About two-thirds of people tip their heads to the right while kissing. Scientists believe this preference starts before we’re born, when we tip our heads to the right in the womb. So muscles in your head, neck and shoulders tilt your head so your nose doesn’t collide with your partner’s nose.
Sensations involved in kissing aren’t confined to the mouth. Your facial nerve carries impulses between your brain and the muscles and skin in your face and tongue. While you kiss, it carries messages from your lips, tongue and face to your brain to tell it what’s going on. Your brain responds by ordering your body to produce :
• Oxytocin - which helps people develop feelings of attachment, devotion and affection for one another
• Dopamine - which plays a role in the brain’s processing of emotions, pleasure and pain
• Serotonin - which affects a person’s mood and feelings
• Adrenaline - which increases heart rate and plays a role in your body’s fight-or-flight response
When you kiss, these hormones and neurotransmitters rush through your body. Along with natural endorphins, they produce the euphoria most people feel during a good kiss. Your heart rate increases and your blood vessels dilate, so your entire body receives more oxygen than normal. You can also smell the person you’re kissing, and researchers have demonstrated a connection between smells and emotions.
World Records
The longest recorded kiss took place in New York City on December 5, 2001, between Louisa Almedovar and Rich Langley, lasting 30 hours, 59 minutes and 27 seconds.
The world record for the largest group kiss was set on July 22nd 2007 in Weston-Super-Mare at Channel 4’s T4 on the Beach. More than 32,000 people kissed for 20 seconds, smashing the previous record set in France by over 30,000 people.
On September 1, 2007, 6980 couples kissed for 10 seconds in Tuzla, Bosnia breaking the previous Guinness World Kissing Records of the Philippines and Hungary. The record currently awaits official certification.
The longest onscreen kiss was performed by Gregory Smith and Stephanie Sherrin in the 2005 film Kids in America which lasted just over 6 minutes.
Thanks for Reading
Wingcent Ning
wingcent@singnet.com.sg
WingcentDotDreams.com
Singapore
P.S. : Living with the same partner for a long time can become stable and comfortable, and, as a result, can also kill the spark that made your relationship so special in the first place. Learn more over here.
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