When it really has begun? Scientists don’t know much about the early history of kissing. It is presumed that it happened as part of courtship and sexual foreplay, and therefore is rather instinctive (many animals also kiss, lick and nuzzle each other), but it was (for whatever reason) rarely depicted in art or writing. Artists/writers may have considered kissing too sexual or private to share publicly.
Kissing allows prospective mates to taste each other’s pheromones for biological compatibility. It is a much stronger chemical reaction than merely sniffing each other. Humans also judge potential mates on the quality of the kiss as a sign of a potential lover’s personality and ability to commit.
Four Vedic Sanskrit texts written in India around 1500 B.C. describe people kissing, and this is one of the earliest known examples of kissing in literature. Statues made roughly around the same time depicted kisses (ie. Khajuraho India, Chitragupta Temple – The Kiss – c.1000). The Indian epic poem “Mahabharata” describes kissing on the lips as a sign of affection. The “Mahabharata” was passed down orally for several hundred years before being written down and standardized around 350 A.D. The Indian religious text “Vatsyayana Kamasutram,” or the “Kama Sutra” also describes a variety of kisses. It was written in the 6th century A.D.
Some anthropologists believe that kissing is a learned cultural behavior and theorize that the Greeks learned about it when Alexander the Great invaded India in 326 B.C., but many other anthropologists disagree and believe kissing was part of courtship rituals for centuries before it was ever recorded.
Kissing was quite popular during the Roman Empire and Romans used kisses to greet friends and family members. Citizens kissed their rulers’ hands. The Romans had three different categories for kissing: Osculum was a kiss on the cheek; Basium was a kiss on the lips; Savolium was a deep kiss (what we commonly refer to as French Kissing).
In Rome it was tradition that couples announce their wedding by kissing passionately in front of a group of people, including family. Today modern couples kiss at the end of wedding ceremonies.
The Romans also sealed letters and documents with a kiss and so the term “sealed with a kiss” comes as no surprise. Kisses were used like handshakes to seal legal and business agreements and even during political campaigns.
The British took it one step further with “kisses for votes” scandals in the 18th century which led some candidates to kissing only the very young and very old.
Most cultures around the world kiss today, but there are differing views on the appropriateness of kissing. In the 1990s there was a trend of young people kissing in public in Japan, where kissing had traditionally been viewed as a private activity and scandalous to be done publicly.
Religious Kissing
Like the Romans, early Christians often greeted one another with an osculum pacis, an holy kiss on the cheek. According to tradition, the holy kiss caused a transfer of spirit between the two people kissing. Some historians believe this was the result of the church wanting to foster a sense of “brotherly love amongst the clergy”, but could also have been the result of rampant homosexuality within the clergy. (See Papal Impropriety.)
In the 13th century the Catholic Church substituted a pax board, which the congregation kissed instead of kissing one another. The Protestant Reformation in the 1500s removed kissing from religious services entirely. The holy kiss doesn’t usually play a role in modern Christian religious services, although some Christians do kiss religious symbols, including the Pope’s ring.
