Why do we kiss?
I had a little lip catastrophe which abandoned me from kissing. That was a torture for a mother of gorgeous irresistable kids. So, I felt VERY bad seeing them and not being able to shower them with my kisses. That got me wondering where the "kiss", in its various froms came from? Why is it a strong form of expressing emotions? So I searched and found the following:
The study of behavior is one of the most interesting areas of science. The origins of human behavior, in particular, are very intriguing to scientists. One reason why behavior is so interesting is that behavior always has two components: genetic inheritance and environmental influence. Genetically inherited traits are subject to the processes of evolution. Environmental components of behavior, however, are simply the influences present at any given time. Like all behavior, kisses have both a genetic component and an environmental component. It is commonly accepted by biological anthropologists that evolution has selected for humans to form strong emotional bonds with other people. Part of this bonding is brought about by physical touch. One common form of physical affection in primates is grooming behavior. General emotional bonding and physical touch are very important in people for evolutionary reasons. I won't go into the theory behind why emotional bonding and social interactions have been important in our evolution here. So humans are born with the desire to express emotional bonds through physical touch. However, the environment in which a person is raised has a huge impact on how that person will express affection. In the United States it is customary for male friends to shake hands upon greeting or saying goodbye. In European countries, it is more customary for males to hug, or even kiss their friends when greeting or saying goodbye. These differences aren't based in genetics; they are based on what you saw when you grew up, and what you feel is appropriate in your given environment. So the desire to express emotions through physical contact is probably genetic, while the form of contact used is mostly environmental. Still, why would someone use their lips to express affection? The answer to this goes back to genetics. There are certain areas of our bodies that have an unusually large number of sensory nerves. Our fingers have more nerves packed into them than any other part of the body. This is useful for figuring out what something is by using your fingers, or for preforming complicated tasks by hand. Another area packed full of nerves is the lips and tongue. These nerves are useful in testing food for temperature and texture before chewing food up and swallowing it. Large areas of the brain are devoted to receiving and processing information from your hands and from your lips. Because hands and lips are so sensitive, physical touch to these areas stimulates a greater feeling of touch than other areas of the body. So it's not surprising that hands and lips are used quite often to communicate affection between people. Evolution selected for having very sensitive lips for reasons other than kissing. But because they were so sensitive, they were easily adapted to being used in a physical expression of emotional bonding.
John Carlson MD/PhD parasitology
Area of science: Evolution
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Am glad my lips are healed now and I can practice my favorite motherhood chore
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