"Brindle and her colleagues, Catherine Talbot of the Florida Institute of Technology and Stuart West of Oxford, wanted to evaluate kissing from an evolutionary perspective. So they searched through past studies for modern examples of primates smooching, defined rather unromantically as non-agonistic interaction involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer. They found that just like humans, great apes kiss for a variety of reasons, from conveying sexual desire to indicating friendly, affectionate feelings."
"For humans, kissing holds major cultural cachet, accompanying confessions of romantic love, religious rituals of reverence and even betrayals, a la The Godfather Part II's kiss of death. New research suggests that kissing probably predates humanity and evolved between 16.9 million and 21.5 million years ago, after the ancestor of the great apes split from the lesser apes, or gibbons. There is even evidence that Neandertals kissed."
Kissing likely predates humans, evolving between 16.9 and 21.5 million years ago after the split between the ancestor of great apes and lesser apes (gibbons). Evidence suggests Neandertals engaged in kissing. Romantic kissing is documented in about 46 percent of human cultures. Kissing among primates is defined as non-agonistic, directed, intraspecific oral-oral contact with lip or mouthpart movement and no food transfer. Great apes exhibit kissing for multiple functions, including conveying sexual desire and signaling friendly or affectionate feelings; chimpanzees often kiss to reconcile after arguments. Kissing was not observed in gibbons and was absent in eastern gorillas.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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