Evolution of Kiss

Dictionary says that kiss is a touch with the lips or a press with the lips against someone’s mouth or other body part.But I do not agree to what dictionary says and to get the real meaning of the word kiss, one has to go through the quotations of romantic poets who still have the hot blood of youth coursing in their veins.For instance, have a closer look at the following quotations.

Coleridge  - Nectar breathing.
Shakespeare - Seal of love.
Ann Taylor - Who ran to help me when i fell, and would tell some pretty story or kiss the place to make it well? My mother.

Well,kiss is the most wonderful way to express your love in the world.Kiss is a rosy dot over the ‘i’ of loving, a better fate than wisdom.It is like the perfume of fruits mellowing in their winter buds and also like a bouquet of flowers that attract the bees.Yes, a kiss is all of these and more. If you want to know amazing facts about it then read this beautifully composed article. “Amazing facts about kissing”

The romance portrayed in this painting (Romeo and Juliet) is phenomenal.

Before coming to evolution of kiss, let’s know about the origin of word kiss.The first use of this word has been before 12th century.The word came from old English cyssan; akin to old German Kussen to kiss.Anthropologists have failed to arrive at a reasoning  as to whether kissing is an acquired and learnt behavior or an instinctual or intuitive one.A kiss can express sentiment of love, passion, affection, greeting, good luck, friendship, peace and can represent a ritual, formal or symbolic gesture indicating devotion, respect, or sacrament depending on the culture and context.
 Earliest theory : One of the earliest theories related to evolution of kiss is echoes of the mandible touching patterns seen in birds which means the maternal premastication of food hypothesis.This suggests that sexual kissing or the romantic kissing has evolved from this where there would be mouth to mouth contact between mother and child during the oral exchange of food in infancy.

premastication

The earliest written records of kissing date back to 1000 or 2000 BC in India.Ancient Vedas of Indian history have described about kissing for the first time.Of course, it was something more akin to sniffing, and involved running one’s nose over another person’s face, from cheek to nose and nose to cheek.Vaughn Bryant, professor of anthropology at Texas A&M University says that Kama Sutra (The Kama Sutra  is an ancient Indian Hindu text widely considered to be the standard work on human sexual behavior in Sanskrit literature written by Vatsayana.) has got many records describing erotic kissing.
Alexander the Great who was trying to conquer India way back in the past got impressed and loved the art of kissing and took it the western parts.The Romans were responsible to spread the habit to most of Europe and north Africa.Kissing was not always an indication of love, but also could show respect and rank as it was in Medieval Europe.The study of kissing started  in the nineteenth century and is called Philematology, which has been studied by people including Cesare Lombroso, Ernest Crawley, Charles Darwin,Edward Burnett Tylor and modern scholars such as Elaine Hatfield.
There used to be a belief that the soul resided in the breath of a person and  kiss helps them to bring the souls together.One more theory says that kissing is used as a mechanism to assess the quality of a potential mate.This hypothesis holds that saliva exchange enables a potential partner’s health and reproductive status to be determined.
Certain details mentioned above remain unsupported with scientific evidence as there is no availability of data to prove them.
Whatever it is, I conclude saying that there is nothing that is sweeter than a kiss and there is no substitute for it.No one could teach you the art of kissing and never read an article saying how to kiss.Unravel the mysteries by yourself.