Medieval History
A kiss may be just a kiss, but when sweethearts pucker up on Valentine's Day, they will be participating in one of the most bizarre and unlikely of human activities.
Experts say kissing evolved from sniffing, which people did centuries ago as a way of learning about each other.
"At some point, they slipped and ended up on the lips, and they thought that was a lot better," said Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University and an authority on the evolution of human kissing. "You got a lot more bang for your buck."
For most of early human history, smell was more important than any other sense for human relationships, said Sheril Kirshenbaum, author of "The Science of Kissing." People would use smell to determine a person's mood, their health and their social status, she said.
"There were a lot of sniff greetings," said Kirshenbaum, director of the Project on Energy Communication at the University of Texas. "They would brush the nose across the face, because there are scent glands on our faces, and over time the brush of the face became a brush of the lips, and the social greeting was born that way."
Click here to read this article from the Montreal Gazette
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Medieval History
Valentine's Day kisses continue odd human tradition
Experts say kissing evolved from sniffing, which people did centuries ago as a way of learning about each other.
"At some point, they slipped and ended up on the lips, and they thought that was a lot better," said Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University and an authority on the evolution of human kissing. "You got a lot more bang for your buck."
For most of early human history, smell was more important than any other sense for human relationships, said Sheril Kirshenbaum, author of "The Science of Kissing." People would use smell to determine a person's mood, their health and their social status, she said.
"There were a lot of sniff greetings," said Kirshenbaum, director of the Project on Energy Communication at the University of Texas. "They would brush the nose across the face, because there are scent glands on our faces, and over time the brush of the face became a brush of the lips, and the social greeting was born that way."
Click here to read this article from the Montreal Gazette
- Letter To Demetrias (british Academy Post-docs Part Ii)
Following on from our news of Dr Paul Gazzoli's British Academy Post-doctoral Fellowship to work on the Life of Anskar, we also wish to congratulate another ASNC, Dr Alison Bonner, who has also been awarded a British Academy Post-doctoral Fellowship....
- Humans Were Smarter 3000 Years Ago, Scientist Says
The human race is slowly losing its intellectual and emotional capabilities because it no longer faces extreme evolutionary pressures, new research contends. Human intelligence and behavior require optimal functioning of a large number of genes, but...
- Early Humans May Have Been Much Smarter Than We Thought
Rocks carved into ancient stone arrowheads or into lethal tools for hurling spears suggest humans innovated relatively advanced weapons much earlier than thought, researchers in South Africa say. The researchers' finds, partially exposed by a coastal...
- Legislation Forces Archaeologists To Rebury Finds
Human remains from Stonehenge and other ancient settlements will be reburied and lost to science under legislation that threatens to cripple research into the history of humans in Britain, a group of leading archaeologists says today. In a letter addressed...
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THE PHILOSOPHY OF INTER-HUMAN RELATIONS AND THE RELATIONS WITH OTHER NATURAL BEINGS IN THE GLOBAL ERA The Conference will take place in the famous inland of Samos (Pythagorion-a sea-side resort in the Aegean) in Greece between 15th -25th of July 2012....