When did Humans start Kissing?

The Intersection
By Sheril Kirshenbaum
Dec 22, 2010 9:47 PMNov 19, 2019 8:22 PM

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Yesterday I posted The Table of Contents for The Science of Kissing and today I'll answer another question from readers... therewillbewords asked: When did humans start kissing as a show of affection?

The earliest literary evidence we have for kissing dates back to India's Vedic Sanskrit texts composed around 3,500 years ago. However, given there are so many kissing-like behaviors across the animal kingdom (particularly among our closest primate relatives) it's likely that our own species has been locking lips--on and off--for a much longer period of time.

This amazing image (also in the book) is by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye. Tumblr questions are piling in and readers are welcome to submit your own in comments below…

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