# The Art of Kissing **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-art-of-kissing/518048 "2009-11-18T18:37:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-art-of-kissing/518048/1 "2009-11-18T18:37:34Z")
Has kissing to show passion or affection always been around? When I was a kid I was always told that Eskimos always rubbed noses because their lips would stick together because of the cold. So is there different styles throughout the ages/cultures? How did it originate and when? ---
**Author:** ![pan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@pan1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pan1)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-art-of-kissing/518048/2 "2009-11-18T19:12:01Z")
Kissing as a form of affection has been around longer than writing. Kissing in romance is a mostly European thing with origins probably around the time of ancient Greece. The Eskimos (Inuits) kiss just like we do and have as long as we’ve known about them. The “Eskimo Kiss” is a different kind of “kiss”, similar to a kiss on the forehead to us. Of course there are a million ways to kiss and different people learn it differently,and people in the same area have a greater chance to learn it similarly. There are distinct cultural trends in kissing too. How french is the french kiss and is it really french at all? I don’t actually know. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-art-of-kissing/518048/3 "2009-11-18T19:25:45Z")
> [@pan1](#): > > The Eskimos (Inuits) kiss just like we do… Just to be a pedant, not all Eskimos are Inuits, so the terms are not interchangeable. The Yupiks are also Eskimo. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-art-of-kissing/518048/4 "2009-11-18T22:28:23Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > Just to be a pedant, not all Eskimos are Inuits, so the terms are not interchangeable. The Yupiks are also Eskimo. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-art-of-kissing/518048/5 "2009-11-19T14:18:56Z")
A simple Google search will turn up tons of links about the history of kissing. [Brief history of the kiss](http://library.thinkquest.org/C004916/kissing-explained/kissing-whykiss3.shtml) [Wikipedia weighs in on kisses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss) [How kissing works](http://people.howstuffworks.com/kissing1.htm) and [The New York Times ran an article on it](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/opinion/14foer.html), too. If you Google “history of kissing” you’ll get many, many links. This is just a sampling. There’s more from the anthropological aspect, as well as entire books devoted to the history of kissing. Google is not evil… try it sometime. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-art-of-kissing/518048/6 "2009-11-19T16:01:44Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > Just to be a pedant, not all Eskimos are Inuits, so the terms are not interchangeable. The Yupiks are also Eskimo. And, to be even more of a pedant, it’s Yup’ik.