Why human kiss?

If you think about it, you could conclude that kissing is strange, even repulsive.

You swap spit with someone, sometimes for an extended period.

In addition,  a kiss can transfer up to 800 million bacteria , not all good for health.

Still, surely everyone remembers their first kiss with great detail, whether shameful or pleasurable.

And the practice continues to play an important role in any new romance.

At least it is so in most societies.

Less than half

Perhaps in the West can consider romantically kissing is a universal behavior, but  a recently published study suggests that less than half of the world's cultures practice it .

In addition,  it is extremely rare in the animal kingdom . So, what is behind this behavior?

If it does the job, why do not all humans and animals?

According to a new study conducted in 168 cultures,  only 46% of societies practice kissing as a romantic gesture.

Previous research had estimated was common in 90% of the world's cultures . But this new study excluded kisses between parents and children and focused only on the romantic kiss, couples are given on the lips.

After analysing the hunter-gatherer societies, the researchers found no evidence that its members kiss, or who have desires to do so.

Some even consider it disgusting.

Inhaling the soul

According to reports, for the tribe of Brazil Mehinaku called romantic kiss is intolerable.

And since these societies is the closest to the lifestyle of our ancestors, they are likely not to kiss.

Therefore, the study dismisses the belief that romantically kissing is a universal behavior, said William Jankowiak, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, United States.

More like a product of Western societies,  a practice that went from generation to generation , he adds.

And there is historical evidence to support this theory.

Kissing as is done today seems a fairly new invention , said Rafael Wlodarski of college of Oxford, UK.

The expert has spent years looking for evidence of how it has changed the practice. The oldest evidence found in Sanskrit texts of more than 3,500 years.

These described the kiss as  the action of inhaling the soul of another .

These described the kiss as  the action of inhaling the soul of another .

 Kissing is a way to get close enough to sniff the genes of potential partner "According to experts ... (Getty)

He also discovered that  Egyptian hieroglyphics depict human figures near each other, but not with lips stuck .

So what is the natural kiss to our culture but others have suppressed? Or an invention of modern man?

Tracks in the nature

The behavior of animals can give an idea about it.

The closest human relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos, also known as pygmy chimpanzees kiss .

The primatologist Frans de Wall, of Emory University in Atlanta, USA, has seen it more than once. It has been observed chimpanzees kiss and hug after a fight.

Therefore, for this practice, more common among males from females, it is a way to reconcile . In other words,  it is not a romantic behavior .