Kissing is an emotional expression of love when one feels extremely close to the other person due to passionate emotions. Researchers are of the view that such behaviours have deep biological roots and are not a result of any cultural invention.
World’s first kiss was between primates
When we think of a kiss, we imagine a deeply human expression of affection, intimacy or emotional bonding. But what if kissing did not begin with us at all? What if the gesture we treat as cultural, romantic or symbolic actually stretches back to ancient primates who lived long before humans even existed? New findings suggest that the roots of kissing may be 20 million years old, making it far older than humanity itself. This idea challenges everything we assume about where our behaviours come from and how far back our emotional instincts reach. A peer-reviewed study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior examined the evolutionary origins of kissing and found that affectionate mouth-to-mouth behaviours appear in several primate species.
Kissing is an emotional expression of love when one feels extremely close to the other person due to passionate emotions. Love is not a recent phenomenon and so is kissing. But the first kiss did not happen between humans but animals.
In a peer-reviewed study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, scientists found that the passionate kiss, part of mouth-to-mouth behaviours, appeared in several primate species, while examining the origins of kissing. The species in which kissing was popular were bonobos and chimpanzees.
What did kiss mean in primates?
Researchers are of the view that such behaviours have deep biological roots and are not a result of any cultural invention. Scientists, while studying phylogenetic analyses of great ape evolution, assessed that kiss-like behaviours may have originated in the common ancestor of great apes around 20 million years ago. This assessment is the basis of scientific proof that the concept of kissing is even older than humanity, which is part of primate social bonding.
Different species have different emotions behind kissing. For example, when Chimpanzees kiss, they do so to normalise after fights. Bonobos kiss as a way of bonding and removing tension. Orangutans kiss while having affectionate grooming. Kissing has been common in these species because they separated from a common ancestor long before human existence.
Scientists have been observing such behaviours in primate species and estimate that kissing in different lineages suggests its early evolution.
The presence of these gestures across different species suggests that kissing-like behaviors have continued to serve important social functions, such as strengthening bonds, promoting cooperation, providing emotional comfort, and facilitating communication, ultimately helping to maintain harmony within primate groups.