Is a Kiss Just a Kiss?
The New York Times takes a look at the kissing controversies of the past week and plugs in some cool historical anthropology, too. From the Times, “The earliest written record of humans’ kissing appears in Vedic Sanskrit texts in India from around 1500 B.C., where certain passages refer to lovers setting mouth to mouth, according to Mr. Bryant. There is debate among scientists over whether the kiss is an innately human practice, or one that we fortuitously acquired along the way. Some trace it to the mother who made the first mouth-to-mouth transfer of pre-chewed food to her child; others to prettier biological Eureka-moments. But in general it is agreed that people kiss in private mainly because it is nice.”
