Why do we kiss?
No, what I really mean is who was it that first figured out that tonsil tennis was rather scrummy.
Nowadays we kiss all sorts of inanimate objects, football players (UK ) kiss the shirt when they score a goal, , we kiss the ground of our home country (the Pope aint fussy) and so on and so forth.
C’mon dopers somebody out there must know
Someone (sorry, I don’t remember who) put forth this theory in another thread about why we snorgle babies and kittens with our mouths - we’re reliving the oral stage of development.
Once upon a time, when you were a wee little broth and not a big chowder, someone made everything all right in the world for you by giving you something to suck and smoosh around with your lips - either a breast or a rubber facsimile thereof. You learned to associate manipulating flesh with your tongue and lips with satiety, warmth, comfort and (eventually) love. It’s only natural to want to do that with someone you feel warm, comfortable and loving with. Luckily, so do they, and you both have these vaguely nipple shaped things in your mouths to share with one another called “tongues”, and lipps that can be smooshed up against each other that are, incidently, the same soft skin type as the areola around a nipple.
So, ultimately, it’s a boob substitute.
As I understand it, there is evidence that pathogens in a mother’s gut stimulate (via the Peyer’s patches) production of antibodies that go to her breastmilk. That may explain why a mother instinctively kisses her baby, since doing so will sample pathogens from the baby and stimulate production of breastmilk with appropriate antibodies.
If that’s correct, then one could theorise that kissing as used elsewhere (footballers etc) just mimics the action to symbolise the affection of a mother to her baby.
Tease. You had me at pathogens.
???
As far as the historical origins go, this site about a BBC radio programme might help:
“As to its origin: some anthropologists believe that kissing evolved from sniffing, some indigenous cultures do rub noses rather than kissing. It is a primal urge to sample another person’s scent, and test their sexual chemistry so could touching lips have extended from rubbing noses? Sounds crazy, but we‘re not alone, moles rub noses, turtles tap their noses, dolphins rub noses, dogs lick each others face, and some birds display with beak clapping or “kissing” displays. Alternatively, kissing may evolved from “kiss feeding”: in which mothers masticate food before passing it on to a baby.”
Ecky thump!! that just about kills the thread then.
Here was me expecting at least some erotica.
Humph!
Well you could pretend that doesn’t say ‘masticate’…
OK. Since it’s you.
Martiju’s comment concerning birds beak clapping or kissing highlights two major differences between avian and human behaviour in the field of amour. A male bird will often clap beaks with the female and get straight down to business, sometimes without taking her for dinner, or even a movie.
On the other hand the birds will fly around a bit together after coitus, generally looking pretty pleased with themselves. This is the bird equivalent of lighting a cigarette and saying things like “How was it for you?” and “Let’s do this again sometime.”
The post-coital behaviour of the human male is by no means as solicitous as that of the cock bird. He will often get straight out of bed and go to the pub, leaving the female twiddling her thumbs or doing the ironing. According to the received wisdom, this means that birds are more erotic than men.
.
.
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Note: This analysis was given to me by a female of my acquaintance as I was simultaneously getting dressed, checking my watch and looking for my snooker cue.
The other main difference of course, is that whilst blokes sleep with birds, birds (the avian kind at least) tend not to sleep with men…
According to this, a zookeeper was recently surprised to learn that humans aren’t the only animals who french kiss. This suggests that the urge to kiss is primordial in humans.
I am soooo tempted to say, “You’ll understand when you’re older.”
I don’t get it. I may be a bit slow. Can someone help me out here?
Chez That’s erotica?
Don’t give up your daytime job