The document discusses the science behind kissing and its cultural perceptions. It explains that kissing triggers the release of chemicals like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin that can induce feelings of attachment, pleasure, and mood changes. Researchers have found that kissing increases heart rate and blood flow as various receptors in the brain and body process tactility, smell, and the emotional chemistry between partners. While kissing has evolutionary significance as a display of mate selection, different cultures view it differently - some see it as too intimate for public while others are more open about it. The cultural norms around kissing make it an intriguing subject of discussion.

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fashion | Style
Any man who can drive safely
while kissing a pretty girl is
simply not giving the kiss the
attention it deserves.
— Albert Einstein
Arun Khanna
Medical sciene has followed the kiss like a foresnsic
detective. The amorous kiss unleashes a slew of
chemicals -
Oxytocin, which helps people develop feelings of
attachment, devotion and affection for one another
Dopamine, which plays a role in the brain’s processing
of emotions, pleasure and pain
Serotonin, which affects a person’s mood and feelings
Adrenaline, which increases heart rate and plays a role
in the body’s quickened responses.”
A lot of brain power is devoted around the mouth via
receptors to decipher tactility at lightning speed, trying
to decipher the nature of what a kiss can cause and
convey - euphoria, motivation, closeness…
Researchers tell, during a kiss these chemicals and
neurotransmitters shuttle through the body. Heart
rate increases, blood vessels dilate and more oxygen
pumps in. Smell - the quintessential presence factor
- of the person you are kissing titillates through
olfactory receptors and emotional chemistry works
out combinations of attraction & their import.
Combinations, which science claims are evolutionary
and discretionary about mate choices.
It is even considered a science in its own right, and the
study has a name - Philematology. “Kissing is not just
kissing. It is a major escalation or de-escalation point
in a powerful process of mate choice,” says Helen
Fisher, professor at Rutgers University and author
of the book “Why Him, Why Her: Finding Real
Love by Understanding Your Personality Type.
It is mentioned in the Vedas, which would be
around 1500 B.C. In the western world there is not
much mention of the kiss till the prominence of the
Roman society by the 2nd
century AD. But that does
not mean it was not being performed earlier than
that!
Cultural perception decides the visibility of the
kiss more than its performance. Eastern societies
consider the kiss too intimate, and even carnal, to
be performed in public. A breach of social etiquette,
amounting to disrespect to who or what is around
in the social spaces. Even show business has had to
abstain from it; who can forget the two bobbing
flowers, knocking each other in a Bollywood movie,
replacing the ever closing heads of a couple behind
a tree? And yet the music plays on.
In western societies the kiss may be an open affair
and that perhaps gives it a range of nuances. Right
from the peck on the cheek, harmless and platonic,
to the smoochy-sounding smooch.
It seems this global contest of social order certainly
makes it even more intriguing. One side of the
hemisphere squeamishly furtive about it, while the
other wastefully casual. Is their no middle path, or
the way of the kiss is a definite one as it goes?
Cultural perception
decides the visibility
of the kiss more than
its performance.
The pulsating
distance between a kiss
and its evolutionary
choreography remains
the artistic finesse of
poets, movie directors,
novelists and the
amorous.
I
n a not so obvious kissing culture it can be an
embarrassment to be writing about it, let alone a
complacent Casanovish élan on the subject. Friends
and relatives may get suspicious at the necessity of
writing about it at all. Enthusiasm might sound boyishly
smitten,andcoldobjectivitymightseemfarcicalforasubject
so full of intimate human emotion - the ultimate symbol of
love and betrayal. A subject worth the attention, after all.
Thepulsatingdistancebetweenakissanditsevolutionarychoreography
remains the artistic finesse of poets, movie directors, novelists and the
amorous. Its technical dynamics makes it even seem bizarre and funny,
leaping up to lock lips, angling the nose out of the way, managing the
tongue - after having used 34 muscles just for the pout alone!
And yet on a more delicate note it seems the whispery sound of a kiss
hides a thunderclap that knocks the senses out of synce.
As I try to think of the number of words that can describe the way
of the kiss, each word reveals the intriguing complexity of the range;
Kissing- furtively, raunchily, gently, shyly, voluptuously, exuberantly,
lustily, sloppily, coldly, boldly …! add to it the magical highs and
lows of fairy tales - ‘kiss of life’, ‘kiss of death’, ‘deliverance of
curses’, ‘frogs and princes’, and so forth.
Congested on what point-of-view to take on a
subject that verges on the discomfort zone of social
discussion, and a hint of so called frivolity hanging
onto it, a goggled search relieves some of the
tension
‘There are over 250 references in the Kama Sutra
to different types of kisses, when to kiss, how to
kiss…’
‘Kissing for one minute burns 26 calories…’
‘A Thai couple have kissed for 46 hours, 24 minutes
and nine seconds to celebrate Valentine’s Day”
And the anti climax to the ecstatic experience… ‘Well
over 5 million bacteria are exchanged between you and your
partner in one long, lingering passionate kiss!’ …but then
passion comes with its life force of immunity?
94 95vivacity magazine • september 2011 september 2011 • vivacity magazinewww.vivacitymagazines.com www.vivacitymagazines.com