600 BC) as a boy from his Median kinsmen. 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 ( c. May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,įor your love is better than wine. Much later, there is the oft-quoted verse from Song of Songs 1:2: Genesis 29:11 features the first man-woman kiss in the Bible, when Jacob flees from Esau and goes to the house of his uncle Laban:Īnd Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. The earliest reference to kissing in the Old Testament is in Genesis 27:26, when Jacob deceives his father to obtain his blessing:Īnd his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. I will arise and break the bands of Death. Come! Come! Come! And kiss me when I die,įor life, compelling life, is in thy breath Īnd at that kiss, though in the tomb I lie, His kisses on my lips, my breast, my hair. When we kiss, and her warm lips half open, Kissing is described in the surviving ancient Egyptian love poetry from the New Kingdom, found on papyri excavated at Deir el-Medina:Īnd wake up from this ever lasting sleep. When my sweet precious, my heart, had lain down too,Įach of them in turn kissing with the tongue, each in turn. My lips are too small, they know not to kiss. īoth lip and tongue kissing are mentioned in Sumerian poetry: While kissing itself was not directly associated with disease transmission in Mesopotamia, certain cultural and religious factors governed its practice. Ancient Mesopotamian medical texts mention a disease called bu'shanu, which may have been related to HSV-1 infection. 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. Advances in ancient DNA extraction have revealed pathogen genomes in human remains, including those transmitted through saliva. The act of kissing may have unintentionally facilitated the transmission of orally transmitted microorganisms, potentially leading to disease. 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. Evidence from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt suggests that kissing was documented as early as 2500 BCE. However, recent studies challenge the belief that kissing originated in South Asia around 1500 BCE. 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. 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. 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. 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. Those who believe kissing to be an instinctual behaviour cite similar behaviours in other animals such as bonobos, which are known to kiss after fighting - possibly to restore peace. The word came from Old English cyssan ("to kiss"), in turn from coss ("a kiss").Īnthropologists disagree on whether kissing is an instinctual or learned behaviour. In some situations, a kiss is a ritual, formal or symbolic gesture indicating devotion, respect, or a sacramental. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, sexual activity, sexual arousal, affection, respect, greeting, peace, and good luck, among many others. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. A man and a woman kissingĪ kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. For other uses, see Kiss (band) Kiss (disambiguation) and Kissing, Bavaria.
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