Kiss

thumb|right|Maternal Kiss, an 1896 painting by [[Mary Cassatt.]]

thumb|A [[forehead kiss]]

right|thumbnail|American sailor kissing his infant son

right|thumbnail|Kissing the [[gospel]]

right|thumbnail|Graduates of the Basic Patrol Course in [[Afghanistan kiss the Quran after the graduation ceremony.]]

A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal, or object. Others believe that it is a learned behaviour, having evolved from activities such as suckling or premastication in early human cultures passed on to modern humans. Another theory posits that the practice originated in males during the Paleolithic era tasting the saliva of females to test their health in order to determine whether they would make a good partner for procreation. The fact that not all human cultures kiss is used as an argument against kissing being an instinctual behaviour in humans; only around 90% of the human population is believed to practice kissing.

The earliest reference to kissing-like behavior comes from the Vedas, Sanskrit scriptures that informed Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, around 3,500 years ago, according to Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University who specialized in the history of the kiss. However, recent studies challenge the belief that kissing originated in South Asia around 1500 BCE, arguing that there is no single point of origin in historical times. Figurines have been found that indicate kissing may have been practiced in prehistory. It has been suggested that Neandertals and humans kissed. Evidence from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt suggests that kissing was documented as early as 2500 BCE. Kissing was present in both romantic and familial contexts in ancient Mesopotamia, but it was subject to social regulation, and public display of the sexual aspect of kissing was discouraged. Kissing also had a role in rituals. The act of kissing may have unintentionally facilitated the transmission of orally transmitted microorganisms, potentially leading to disease. Advances in ancient DNA extraction have revealed pathogen genomes in human remains, including those transmitted through saliva. The shift in dominant lineages of the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) during the Bronze Age implies that cultural practices like romantic-sexual kissing could have contributed to its transmission. Ancient Mesopotamian medical texts mention a disease called bu'shanu, which may have been related to HSV-1 infection. While kissing itself was not directly associated with disease transmission in Mesopotamia, certain cultural and religious factors governed its practice.

Both lip and tongue kissing are mentioned in Sumerian poetry:

Kissing is described in the surviving ancient Egyptian love poetry from the New Kingdom, found on papyri excavated at Deir el-Medina:

The earliest reference to kissing in the Old Testament is in , when Jacob deceives his father to obtain his blessing:

features the first man-woman kiss in the Bible, when Jacob flees from Esau and goes to the house of his uncle Laban:

Much later, there is the oft-quoted verse from :

In Cyropaedia (370 BC), Xenophon wrote about the Persian custom of kissing in the lips upon departure while narrating the departure of Cyrus the Great () as a boy from his Median kinsmen. According to Herodotus (5th century BC), when two Persians meet, the greeting formula expresses their equal or inequal status. They do not speak; rather, equals kiss each other on the mouth, and in the case where one is a little inferior to the other, the kiss is given on the cheek.

During the later Classical period, affectionate mouth-to-mouth kissing was first described in the Hindu epic the Mahabharata.

Anthropologist Vaughn Bryant argues kissing spread from India to Europe after Alexander the Great conquered parts of Punjab in northern India in 326 BCE.

The Romans were passionate about kissing and talked about several types of kissing. Kissing the hand or cheek was called an . Kissing on the lips with mouth closed was called a , which was used between relatives. A kiss of passion was called a .

thumb|A fresco from [[Pompeii showing the kiss of a Roman couple ]]

Kissing was not always an indication of eros, or love, but also could show respect and rank as it was used in Medieval Europe.

The study of kissing started sometime in the nineteenth century and is called philematology, which has been studied by people including Cesare Lombroso, Ernest Crawley, Charles Darwin, Edward Burnett Tylor and modern scholars such as Elaine Hatfield.

Types

Kristoffer Nyrop identified a number of types of kisses, including kisses of love, affection, peace, respect, and friendship. He notes, however, that the categories are somewhat contrived and overlapping, and some cultures have more kinds, including the French with twenty and the Germans with thirty.

Expression of affection

Kissing another person's lips has become a common expression of affection or warm greeting in many cultures worldwide. Yet in certain cultures, kissing was introduced only through European settlement, before which it was not a routine occurrence. Such cultures include certain indigenous peoples of Australia, the Tahitians, and many tribes in Africa.

A kiss can also be used to express feelings without an erotic element but can be nonetheless "far deeper and more lasting", writes Nyrop. He adds that such kisses can be expression of love "in the widest and most comprehensive meaning of the word, bringing a message of loyal affection, gratitude, compassion, sympathy, intense joy, and profound sorrow."

Kiss on the lips

thumb|right|US Naval Officer's son welcomes his dad back from operation with a kiss

The kiss on the lips can be performed between two friends or family. This move aims to express affection for a friend. Unlike kissing for love, a friendly kiss has no sexual connotation. The kiss on the lips is a practice that can be found in the time of patriarchs (Bible). In Ancient Greece, the kiss on the mouth was used to express a concept of equality between people of the same rank. In the Middle Ages, the kiss of peace was recommended by the Catholic Church. The kiss on the lips was also common among knights.

Romantic kiss

thumb|A heterosexual couple kissing

thumb|A gay couple kissing

thumb|A lesbian couple kissing

In many cultures, it is considered a harmless custom for teenagers to kiss on a date or to engage in kissing games with friends. These games serve as icebreakers at parties and may be some participants' first exposure to sexuality. There are many such games, including truth or dare, seven minutes in heaven (or the variation "two minutes in the closet"), spin the bottle, post office, and wink.

The psychologist William Cane notes that kissing in Western society is often a romantic act and describes a few of its attributes:

Romantic kissing in Western cultures is a fairly recent development and is rarely mentioned even in ancient Greek literature. In the Middle Ages it became a social gesture and was considered a sign of refinement of the upper classes. Other cultures have different definitions and uses of kissing, notes Brayer. In China, for example, a similar expression of affection consists of rubbing one's nose against the cheek of another person. In other Eastern cultures kissing is not common. In South East Asian countries the "sniff kiss" is the most common form of affection and Western mouth to mouth kissing is often reserved for sexual foreplay.

The kiss can be an important expression of love and erotic emotions. In his book The Kiss and its History, Kristoffer Nyrop describes the kiss of love as an "exultant message of the longing of love, love eternally young, the burning prayer of hot desire, which is born on the lovers' lips, and 'rises,' as Charles Fuster has said, 'up to the blue sky from the green plains,' like a tender, trembling thank-offering." Nyrop adds that the love kiss, "rich in promise, bestows an intoxicating feeling of infinite happiness, courage, and youth, and therefore surpasses all other earthly joys in sublimity." Crawley notes that it was "very significant of the affectionate element in religion" to give so important a part to the kiss as part of its ritual. In the early Church the baptized were kissed by the celebrant after the ceremony, and its use was even extended as a salute to saints and religious heroes, with Crawley adding, "Thus Joseph kissed Jacob, and his disciples kissed Paul. Joseph kissed his dead father, and the custom was retained in our civilization", as the farewell kiss on dead relatives, although certain sects prohibit this today.

A distinctive element in the Christian liturgy was noted by Justin in the 2nd century, now referred to as the "kiss of peace," and once part of the rite in the primitive Mass. Conybeare has stated that this act originated within the ancient Hebrew synagogue, and Philo, the ancient Jewish philosopher called it a "kiss of harmony", where, as Crawley explains, "the Word of God brings hostile things together in concord and the kiss of love." Psychology professor Elaine Hatfield noted that "kissing was far from universal and even seen as improper by many societies." The romantic–sexual kiss is present in only about half of the global cultures.

Despite kissing being widespread, in some parts of the world it is still taboo to kiss publicly and is often banned in films or in other media.

As a theme in art

File:Romeo and Juliet (detail) by Frank Dicksee.png|Romeo and Juliet by Sir Frank Dicksee (1884)

File:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - A Little Coaxing (1890).jpg|A Little Coaxing (1890) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)

File:1922.421 - Mother's Goodnight Kiss.jpg|Mother's Goodnight Kiss by Mary Cassatt

File:Jean-Honoré Fragonard - The Stolen Kiss.jpg|Jean-Honoré Fragonard The Stolen Kiss (1786)

File:El Beso (Pinacoteca de Brera, Milán, 1859).jpg|The Kiss by Francesco Hayez (1859)

File:Amor und Psyche Ausschnitt Louvre.jpg|Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss by Antonio Canova

File:The Last Kiss.jpg|The Last Kiss (1931 film)

File:The Kiss.JPG|Le Baiser ("The Kiss") by Auguste Rodin (1882)

File:Leyendecker I Saw mother kissed Santa.jpg|I Saw Mother Kissed Santa (1921) by J. C. Leyendecker

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India

thumb|329x329px|An 8th-century sculpture of a couple embraced and kissing at Tivara Deva temple, an excavated monument at [[Sirpur, Chhattisgarh, India]]

The Vedas, the oldest Hindu scripture dating back to 1500 B.C., contains one of the first descriptions of romantic kissing known. Ancient Hindu text Mahabharata also mentions kissing. The culture of kissing is believed to have originated and spread from ancient India. Despite this, romantic kissing in public is subject to moral, cultural, religious and political polarization in the modern day. On-screen lip-kissing was not a regular occurrence in Bollywood until the 1990s, although it has been present from the time of the inception of Bollywood.

Police often register cases against instances of romantic kissing in public, as public display of affection is a criminal offense in India under Section 294 of the Indian Penal Code, despite the Supreme Court of India having ruled kissing as not obscene in many high-profile cases. Due to ambiguity in the law concerning public display of affection, there are also several instances of overreach of police authority in issuing complaint for milder expressions of romantic love like for example hand holding or hugging, as well as instances of interrogation for suspicion of "immoral activities".

Considered as 'corrupt western influence' and 'obscene act' by several religious and political organizations, it has been a subject of protests and even violent incidents. For example in October 2014, when JaiHind TV, an Indian National Congress-owned media, telecast an exclusive report on immoral activities in Kozhikode, Kerala featuring video of a couple kissing and hugging each other in a Downtown cafe, members identified as part of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, a youth wing of Bharatiya Janata Party, vandalized the cafe leading to 2014 Kiss of Love protest. Being organized 'informally' to kiss in a public place in response to increasing levels of 'moral policing', the protest saw opposition from the Kerala Police, with the Police Commissioner denying space to protest although noting that a formal request had not been made. In subsequent escalation of events, the Kerala Police was also criticized for detaining protesting members but allowing counter-protestors, that were also attacking the protestors and even threatening to strip them in public. Counter-protestors constituted of both Hindu and Muslim organizations, with Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Bajrang Dal being prominent Hindu organizations and Social Democratic Party of India and Sunni Yuvajana Samgam being prominent Islamic organizations that took part in the counter-protests. A similar protest planned in Bengaluru, Karnataka was denied permission to be held by Bengaluru Police stating that kissing is an obscene act although protest organized in Delhi outside Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters was conducted peacefully.

Middle East

There are also taboos as to whom one can kiss in some Muslim-majority societies governed by religious law. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, a man who kisses or touches a woman who is not his wife or relative can be punished such as getting whipped up to 100 times or go to jail.

Research from May 2023 found texts from ancient people in Mesopotamia that indicates that kissing was a well-established practice 4,500 years ago. According to Dr Troels Pank Arbøll, one of the authors of this study:

"In ancient Mesopotamia, which is the name for the early human cultures that existed between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in present-day Iraq and Syria, people wrote in cuneiform script on clay tablets. Many thousands of these clay tablets have survived to this day, and they contain clear examples that kissing was considered a part of romantic intimacy in ancient times, just as kissing could be part of friendships and family members' relations."

East Asia

Donald Richie comments that in Japan, as in China, although kissing took place in erotic situations, in public "the kiss was invisible", and the "touching of the lips never became the culturally encoded action it has for so long been in Europe and America." The early Edison film, The Widow Jones – the May Irwin-John Rice Kiss (1896), created a sensation when it was shown in Tokyo, and people crowded to view the enormity. Likewise, Rodin's sculpture The Kiss was not displayed in Japan until after the Pacific War. Also, in the 1900s, Manchu tribes along the Amur River regarded public kissing between adults with revulsion. In a similar situation in Chinese tradition, when Chinese men saw Western women kissing men in public, they thought the women were prostitutes.

Contemporary practices

thumb|[[Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland|Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Christopher O'Neill kiss each other after their wedding, June 2013.]]

In modern Western culture, kissing on the lips is commonly an expression of romantic affection or a warm greeting. When lips are pressed together for an extended period, usually accompanied with an embrace, it is an expression of romantic and sexual desire. The practice of kissing with an open mouth, to allow the other to suck their lips or move their tongue into their mouth, is called French kissing. "Making out" is often an adolescent's first experience of their sexuality and games which involve kissing, such as spin the bottle, facilitate the experience. People may kiss children on the forehead to comfort them or the cheek or lips to show affection.

In modern Eastern culture, the etiquette vary depending on the region. In West Asia, kissing on the lips between both men and women is a common form of greeting. In South and Eastern Asia, it might often be a greeting between women, however, between men, it is unusual. Kissing a baby on the cheeks is a common form of affection. Most kisses between men and women are on the cheeks and not on the lips unless they are romantically involved. Sexual forms of kissing between lovers encompass the whole range of global practices.

Kissing in films

The first romantic kiss on screen was in American silent films in 1896, beginning with the film The Kiss. The kiss lasted 18 seconds and caused many to rail against decadence in the new medium of silent film. Writer Louis Black writes that "it was the United States that brought kissing out of the Dark Ages." However, it met with severe disapproval by defenders of public morality, especially in New York. One critic proclaimed that "it is absolutely disgusting. Such things call for police interference." According to the new code, "Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown."

The heyday of romantic kissing on the screen took place in the early sound era, during the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. Body language began to be used to supplement romantic scenes, especially with the eyes, a talent that added to Greta Garbo's fame. Author Lana Citron writes that "men were perceived as the kissers and women the receivers. Should the roles ever be reversed, women were regarded as vamps . . ."

In early Japanese films, kissing and sexual expression were controversial. In 1931, a director slipped a kissing scene past the censor (who was a friend), but when the film opened in a downtown Tokyo theater, the screening was stopped and the film confiscated. During the American occupation of Japan, in 1946, an American censor required a film to include a kissing scene. One scholar says that the censor suggested "we believe that even Japanese do something like kissing when they love each other. Why don't you include that in your films?" Americans encouraged such scenes to force the Japanese to express publicly actions and feelings that had been considered strictly private. Since Pearl Harbor, Americans had felt that the Japanese were "sneaky", claiming that "if Japanese kissed in private, they should do it in public too."

Non-sexual kisses

thumb|right|A mother kissing her child

thumb|right|People kissing in this sketch by reporter and artist [[Marguerite Martyn of a New Year's Eve celebration in 1914]]

In some Western cultures, it is considered good luck to kiss someone on Christmas or on New Year's Eve, especially beneath a sprig of mistletoe. Newlyweds usually kiss at the end of a wedding ceremony.

Female friends and relations and close acquaintances commonly offer reciprocal kisses on the cheek as a greeting or farewell.

Where cheek kissing is used, in some countries a single kiss is the custom, while in others a kiss on each cheek is the norm, or even three or four kisses on alternating cheeks. In the United States, an air kiss is becoming more common. This involves kissing in the air near the cheek, with the cheeks touching or not. After a first date, it is common for the couple to give each other a quick kiss on the cheek (or lips where that is the norm) on parting, to indicate that a good time was had and perhaps to indicate an interest in another meeting.

A symbolic kiss is frequent in Western cultures. A kiss can be "blown" to another by kissing the fingertips and then blowing the fingertips, pointing them in the direction of the recipient. This is used to convey affection, usually when parting or when the partners are physically distant but can view each other. Blown kisses are also used when a person wishes to convey affection to a large crowd or audience. The term flying kiss is used in India to describe a blown kiss. In written correspondence a kiss has been represented by the letter "X" since at least 1763. A stage or screen kiss may be performed by actually kissing, or faked by using the thumbs as a barrier for the lips and turning so the audience is unable to fully see the act.

Some literature suggests that a significant percentage of humanity does not kiss. It has been claimed that in Sub-Saharan African, Asiatic, Polynesian and possibly in some Native American cultures, kissing was relatively unimportant until European colonization. Historically however, the culture of kissing is thought to have begun and spread from the Eastern World, specifically India.

In traditional Islamic cultures, kissing is not permitted between a man and woman who are not married or closely related by blood or marriage. A kiss on the cheek is a very common form of greeting among members of the same sex in most Islamic countries, much like the Southern European pattern.

Legality of public kissing

thumb|Couple Kissing, The Domain, [[Sydney, 1949]]

India

In India, public display of affection is a criminal offense under Section 294 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, with a punishment of imprisonment of up to three months, or a fine, or both. This law was used by police to prosecute couples engaging in intimate acts, such as kissing in public and in some instances also milder expressions of love such as hugging or hand holding in public. Since the concerning sections of law leaves to the discretion of the courts in deciding what constitutes as indecent, despite assertions that kissing in public is not obscene in many landmark cases by the Supreme Court of India, it continues to be in use to rule against such cases.

Legality of unwanted kissing

In New York in the United States, an unwanted kiss constitutes the sex offense of forcible touching. In Italy, the Supreme Court of Cassation has upheld sexual violence convictions for forced kisses. In Australia, unwanted kissing is sexual assault. In the Netherlands, forced-tongue-kissing was prosecuted as rape from 1998 until 2017, when the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that it should instead (while still deemed illegal) be viewed as a potential form of sexual assault, carrying a maximum eight-year prison sentence.

In religion

thumb|right|[[The Taking of Christ (Caravaggio)|The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio (c. 1602) depicts Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss as a signal to arrest Jesus.]]

Kissing was a custom during the Biblical period mentioned in the , when Isaac kissed his son Jacob. The kiss is used in numerous other contexts in the Bible: the kiss of homage, in Esther 5:2; of subjection, in 1 Samuel 10:1; of reconciliation, in 2 Samuel 14:33; of valediction, in Ruth 1:14; of approbation, in Psalms 2:12; of humble gratitude, in Luke 7:38; of welcome, in Exodus 18:7; of love and joy, in Genesis 20:11. There are also spiritual kisses, as in Song of Songs 1:2; sensual kisses, as in Proverbs 7:13; and hypocritical kisses, as in 2 Samuel 15:5. It was customary to kiss the mouth in biblical times, and also the beard, which is still practiced in Arab culture. Kissing the hand is not biblical, according to Tabor.]]

Within the natural world of other animals, there are numerous analogies to kissing, notes Crawley, such as "the billing of birds, the cataglottism of pigeons and the antennal play of some insects." Even among mammals such as the dog, cat and bear, similar behavior is noted. Dogs, cats, birds and other animals display licking, nuzzling, and grooming behavior among themselves, and also towards humans or other species. This is sometimes interpreted by observers as a type of kissing.

Kissing in humans was argued by ethologist Eibl-Eibesfeldt to have evolved from the direct mouth-to-mouth regurgitation of food (kiss-feeding) from parent to offspring or male to female (courtship feeding) and has been observed in numerous mammals. The similarity in the methods between kiss-feeding and deep human kisses (e.g. French kiss) is quite pronounced; in the former, the tongue is used to push food from the mouth of the mother to the child with the child receiving both the mother's food and tongue in sucking movements, and the latter is the same but forgoes the premasticated food. In fact, through observations across various species and cultures, it can be confirmed that the act of kissing and premastication has most likely evolved from the similar relationship-based feeding behaviours.

A 2024 article advanced the hypothesis that the practice of human kissing may have evolved from the final stage of grooming in non-human primates, representing a vestigial form of lip contact that has retained its ancestral social function of strengthening bonds of affiliation and kinship.

A 2025 study published in Evolution and Human Behavior found evidence that kissing first occurred in human ancestors between 21.5–16.9 million years ago.

Physiology

Kissing is a complex behavior that requires significant muscular coordination involving a total of 34 facial muscles and 112 postural muscles. The most important muscle involved is the orbicularis oris muscle, which is used to pucker the lips and informally known as the kissing muscle. In the case of the French kiss, the tongue is also an important component. Lips have many nerve endings which make them sensitive to touch and bite.

Neurological effects

Kissing stimulates the production of hormones responsible for a good mood: oxytocin, which releases the feeling of love and strengthens the bond with the partner, endorphins – hormones responsible for the feeling of happiness –, and dopamine, which stimulates the pleasure center in the brain. Affection in general has stress-reducing effects. Kissing in particular has been studied in a controlled experiment and it was found that increasing the frequency of kissing in marital and cohabiting relationships results in a reduction of perceived stress, an increase in relationship satisfaction, and a lowering of cholesterol levels.

References

External links

Kissing in Strange Places.  — slideshow by Life magazine.
Put your sweet lips... (a history of the kiss), Keith Thomas, The Times, June 11, 2005.
The Kiss of Life, Joshua Foer, The New York Times, February 14, 2006.
Why do humans kiss each other when most animals don't?, Melissa Hogenboom, BBC Earth, July 2015.
How Kissing Works, History and Anatomy of the Kiss, Tracy V. Wilson, HowStuffWorks.

Types

Expression of affection

Kiss on the lips

Romantic kiss

As a theme in art

India

Middle East

East Asia

Contemporary practices

Kissing in films

Non-sexual kisses

Legality of public kissing

India

Legality of unwanted kissing

In religion

Physiology

Neurological effects

See also

References

Further reading

External links