Valentines: A time for kissing

How do you show your love and affection? Many people do so through the tender gestures they share throughout the day, including kisses.

Kissing exemplifies love and passion and can express many different sentiments. A kiss also can provide comfort in a time of need.

Even though kissing may seem universal to human beings, it is not embraced by all cultures. Information published in Psychology Today suggests kissing is not innate to all people. However, many still peck and kiss ardently. Even some animals are known to express affection through kissing. How did this behavior then come to be?

Two theories give some ideas about where kissing may have originated. Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University who specializes in the history of the kiss, says the earliest references to kissing-like behavior dates to around 3,500 years ago in Sanskrit scriptures that influenced various Eastern religions. Kissing is mentioned in both Sumerian and Egyptian poetry. The Old Testament also references kissing in the book of Genesis when Isaac asks his son Jacob to kiss him.

Another theory is that kissing evolved from a process known as “kiss feeding.” This is when mothers would pre-chew food and then pass it to their babies.

Some suggest that kissing may be an extension of grooming behavior. That’s because primates such as bonobo apes frequently kiss one another. Dogs and cats also lick and nuzzle other animals and humans. This may indicate that so-called “kissing” is merely a way of communicating or grooming other beings as a form of establishing trust and bonding.

Even though people are not entirely sure about the origins of kissing, many men and women around the world engage in some form of kissing each and every day. The next time sweethearts lock lips, whether on Valentine’s Day or another time during the year, they can think about how kissing became the norm for showing love.