I once knew a girl in St Augustine who claimed to know 50 ways to kiss. We all tried to test out her knowledge but failed. At least those boys and girls that I knew said so.
Do you remember this?
“You must remember this, A kiss is still a kiss,
A sigh is just a sigh, The fundamental things apply. As time goes by.”
“Time goes by!”
Can you recall your first kiss? Mine occurred over 60 years ago and I still remember it. I hope she’s alive and well. Since then, there have been better, but the feel of her lips on mine that Tuesday in 1958 remained for hours after, such is the sensitivity of our lips and the area of the brain that translates touch into feelings.
How did kissing start? The origin of the kiss is shrouded in mystery. It may have developed from the ancient custom of people who pressed their noses together as a sign of friendship. Small children enjoy doing this and lovers also indulge in this type of touching. From the nose to the lips is but a slip and the greater sensitivity of the lips may have attracted lovers. The nose connection with kissing is underscored by the fact that smell is an important component of taste, as anyone with a head cold can confirm. Few people with a cold like to kiss or be kissed.
Kissing is wonderfully healthy. It stimulates the brain to release a set of hormones starting with oxytocin, or the “love hormone.” It is found in our body in response to loving behaviour. Among other things, oxytocin boosts feelings of affection and promotes caretaking. Kissing also causes the release of adrenaline and another chemical, dopamine, which result in feelings of pleasure. Finally, the levels of serotonin present in the brain whilst kissing look a lot like those of someone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. No wonder the memory of a good kiss can stay with us for years.
The latest and most up-to-date study says kissing probably began about 21 million years ago. The study, by the University of Oxford, found that there is evidence that “kissing evolved in the common ancestor of humans and other large apes around 21 million years ago.” And, of course, the large apes- chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans - still indulge in kissing as grooming and friendship activity.
“Time goes by.” Twenty-one million years ago is a long time before homo sapiens emerged around 300,000 years ago, a relative twinkle in the eyes of the beloved. But what other things may have caused our ancestors to start kissing?
The Oxford researchers defined kissing as “non-aggressive, mouth-to-mouth contact that did not involve food transfer.” Not very romantic, but kissing may then have evolved out of grooming habits where the mouth is used to clean and remove parasites from a companion. It’s also possible that it evolved from the pleasant habit of mothers chewing up solid foods to soften them before placing them into the mouths of their children, something that still occurs today in T&T.
Apart from the feelings of pleasure associated with kissing, various clinical studies have demonstrated that touching, which includes kissing, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones and enhances the immune system.
Interestingly, a passionate kiss burns 6.4 calories per minute compared with 11.2 calories burned per minute jogging on a treadmill. And kissing is good for your teeth, too, because your mouth waters when you kiss and saliva helps destroy plaque.
Kissing may also be tied into breastfeeding. As the child kisses the mother’s breast, before the actual ingestion of the useful bacteria and bacteria-fighting white blood cells, chemicals and antibodies to every pathogen she has ever been in contact with, in her milk, he/she also swallows the bacteria on the skin of her body, the very ones she has antibodies to.
A similar process happens when she chews up food, mixed with her saliva, loaded with similar chemicals and bacteria and passes it on to her baby to colonise his/her gut. So as breastfeeding wanes slowly and solids begin to replace human milk, the process of obtaining passive and active immunity, which began months ago in the womb by the passage of nutrients, bacteria and antibodies via the placenta, continues.
Placenta, breast and mouth, all tied up in the circle of life-giving immunity, nutrition, protection and safety. It’s been going on for a long, long time.
AIs can’t kiss, though.
