Why do people kiss each other?
1Why do people kiss each other?
The way people kiss and the meaning they derive from kissing can vary in different cultures. In this case, can we say that the act of kissing is not as universal as we think?
We think that every mother and child in the world kiss each other on the cheek, or that every couple kisses lip to lip to show their love. However, kissing may not be as common as we think.
According to a study of 168 different cultures, less than half of societies prefer to kiss with their lips.
William Jankowiak of the University of Nevada Las Vegas says only 46 percent of the world uses lip-to-lip kissing romantically, except for things like parent-child kisses or greetings.
EVERYTHING STARTS WITH A BABY
There are two theories as to why people need kissing. The act of kissing is thought to be due to the fact that we have an innate lip touch when we are babies. This situation, which we can associate with breastfeeding, is actually a reflex action for everyone.
On the other hand, there are allegations that mothers and their children bond because of something called "premastication food transfer". Accordingly, in ancient times, mothers used to chew their food in their own mouth before giving it to their children and make it edible for the child. In this way, a bond developed by word of mouth between mother and baby was formed.
THERE ARE ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO KISSING
“The reason why people want to kiss and choose not to kiss is that emotional satisfaction can be met in many ways other than kissing,” Jankowiak says.
Author Sheril Kirshenbaum says cultures that don't kiss lip-to-lip have found other ways to be intimate: "In the Malay kiss Darwin described, women crouch on the ground, men lean over them and inhale each other's scent."
Even if we accept that there are many different types of kissing in the world and that the act of kissing has different meanings, kissing by pressing our lips together is a human behavior. Why do we kiss lip to lip?
On the other hand, if kissing has an evolutionary purpose, why aren't we seeing more animals kissing?
Melissa Hogenboom answered this question for BBC Earth in 2015. One of the reasons we have to get close to a partner's face is to smell them well. Smell can reveal all sorts of useful information: diet, presence of disease, mood, and kinship, to name a few. Many animals have a much more developed sense of smell than we do, so they don't have to be nearly as close.