While a kiss may arguably be our most common display of romantic affection, did you know that romantic kissing is common in less than half of the world's cultures??
A new study discounts the previous estimation that as much as 90 percent of the world participates in romantic kissing. It actually appears that a kiss between lovers is a relatively new and decidedly western practice.
NBC News reports:
The study authors, from Indiana and Nevada State Universities, looked at surveys of dozens of cultures and quizzed anthropologists around the world who had spent time with many more. What they found was that just under half of cultures studied showed evidence of romantic kissing — that is, the mouth-to-mouth kind between mates and lovers, not kiss-like gestures within families or among friends. Those that did were more likely to be Western and feature more class-based social structures.
"We found no evidence that the romantic-sexual kiss is a human universal or even a near universal," the authors wrote in the paper's conclusion. "While kissing may be a way to communicate intimacy in some societies or may function as a specific eroticized activity in others, it is important to note that for quite a few kissing is seen as unpleasant, unclean, or simply unusual."Do these findings surprise you??
SOURCE: Instinct
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