TTiursday, February 12, 1981
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Valentines Day:
A&M prof studies kissing;
teaches cultural diffusion
By Susan Hopkins
S Battalion Staff
ome people collect stamps. Others scu
ba dive, ride norses, collect coins or make
crafts. Dr. Vaughn M. Bryant, Jr., head of the
anthropology department at Texas A&M
University, studies kissing.
So, naturally, the actions of people on
Valentine's Day and Christmas play a vital
part in Bryant's hobby, because when love is
prevalent, so is kissing. But his research has
gone far beyond the study of these two love-
oriented holidays. Bryant may well be a
world authority on the subject.
"When I lecture to introductory anthropol
ogy classes about the impact of cultural or
technological diffusion on society, I can talk
about airplanes or kissing. One will make
every student in the room fall asleep, and the
other will keep them awake and interested,"
Bryant said.
The origin of customs is a typical and in
teresting topic for anthropologists to study,
but 15 years ago when a student asked Bryant
about the kissing custom, he didn't have an
answer.
In his spare time away from teaching and
researching — an extensive study of prehis
toric diets has become his research speciality
— Bryant began hunting information about
the history or kissing.
Bryant thinks the first kiss came from the
Eskimo-like custom of lovers rubbing their
noses across the cheeks and lips of each other
attempting to smell the perfume those in In
dia are known to have worn.
If Neanderthals or earlier fossil men and
women kissed, he said, we have no way of
knowing, since they left no written records or
paintings of kissing on cave walls.
However, there is what Bryant calls the
world's first how-to manual on kissing, called
the Kama Sutra,written in the first or second
century A.D. This book on Hindu religion
and love, says the kissing customs it de
scribes were already centuries old when final
ly written down. More than 200 passages in
the Kama Sutra tell how to kiss a lover and
where. It even tells how the kissee should
respond to the kisser, Bryant said.
X hrough studies of Middle East cus
toms, he found that "to eat" and "to kiss"
had identical definitions, since eating and
kissing both brought satisfaction by way of
the mouth. However, he said, no murals of
kissing have been found from that region.
Babylonian song lyrics say the males de
sired women with "honey lips," which
Bryant said may indicate kissing, or simply
the desire for a "sweet" person.
The Greeks are believed to have adopted
the custom from India. Although they were
generally more concerned with sports and
politics, there are occasional mentions of love
and kissing in Greek manuscripts, the profes
sor said.
Kissing took awhile to get from Greece to
Rome, but it hit with a boom when the cus
tom finally reached the area. "The Romans
were very kiss oriented — more so than peo
ple in the U.S. are today — and their deca
dence, highlighted by becoming the first 'kis
sing missionaries/ spread the custom to all of
Europe," Bryant said.
"Literally, they kissed everybody who
waited on them in shops — from the butcher
to the baker to the blacksmith. Kissing was as
commonplace as shaking hands, at all age
levels and both sexes."
The Romans even developed and defined
three levels of kissing:
* The osculum: a friendship kiss, usually
on the cheek, like a kiss to your grandmother
or the hostess of a party. Those in France,
Spain and Latin America still show reverence
by kissing on both cheeks, while the Greeks
and Russians prefer the lips.
* The basium: an affectionate kiss between
lovers. This Latin word is the basis for the
word meaning "to kiss" in most cultures to
day. "Buss" also became a synonym for
"kiss" in the English language.
Under ancient Roman law, a virgin who
could prove she had been kissed in this man
ner could press for legal marriage to the
kisser.
* The savium: defined as a "little kiss", but
in Amores, the Roman poet Ovid describes
savium when writing about the girl who "ea
gerly kissed me with her tongue, in my lips
her whole tongue hid." From this, Bryant
believes, came the American "French kiss."
However, with the rise of Christianity,
came the fall of Roman customs, according to
Bryant. Sexual frivolity, as the early Christ
ians thought of it, was channeled into rever
ence with the "holy kiss," which is referred to
in Romans 16:16 of the Bible: "Greet one
another with a holy kiss. All the churches of
Christ greet you."
Although the Christians made an effort to
do away with the Roman decadence, Bryant
said, the seeds were already planted for kis
sing in most of Europe, and in the Middle
Ages, kissing became popular again.
This time, though, European Christians
developed a form of kissing that was strictly
governed by rank. People of equal rank, male
and female, kissed on the lips. The greater
the difference in rank, the further from the
lips one kissed — the cheeks, hands, feet or
even the ground.
Bryant said that even this reverent kiss got
out of hand — people were greeting each
other with French kisses during church ser
vices. In an effort to restore reverence to the
kiss. Pope Innocence passed two laws at the
Council of Vienna: Any Roman Catholic who
kisses with intent to fornicate commits a mor
tal sin; those who kiss for mere delight com
mit the lesser venial sin.
The sexiest people in the world reportedly
live on the South Seas island of Mangaia,
and early 20s is said to be 21 times a week.
In fact, the professor says, the kissing bug
probably didn't reach them and other Asian,
Pacific and sub-Saharan areas until the arrival
of explorers in the 1400-1800s.
Until that time, many myths had de
veloped in these cultures. Bryant said some
people believed one's soul entered and left
through the mouth, so to kiss someone
would be to risk having your soul sucked out,
causing death. Others thought disease en
tered and left through the mouth, or that the
mouth was a very dirty place, both ideas
making kissing undesirable.
I
t became vogue in England to show
affection and love by extreme politeness. Kis
sing was replaced in the mid-1600s with a
bow, courtsey or tip of a hat. Bryant said
kissing may have come to such an abrubt halt
when the Great Plague hit London and peo
ple were leery of any kind of mouth-to-mouth
contact for fear of catching the fatal disease.
In the Western culture today, kissing is
widespread, serving purposes that range
from the usual greeting to psychological ther
apy, Bryant said. "People need touching,
affection and caring, and we meet some of
these needs through kissing, whether pas
sionate or more like a handshake."
Valentine’s
Day
trivia
Although Valentine's Day is a well-known occasion, the ori
gin of the celebration is rather vague.
The name Valentine comes from St. Valentine, a Christian
martyr who has become the patron saint of lovers. Although
little is known of Valentine, it is believed he was a Roman who
suffered persecution and death in the year 269.
Dr. Vaughn M. Bryant, head of the anthropology department
at Texas A&M University, said Valentine may have been put into
jail by Claudius II and was told he had to renounce his faith or be
fed to the lions. Valentine stuck to his guns and was devoured
on Feb. 14.
The holiday bearing his name became popular in England
during the Middle Ages, when the custom of sending Valentine
cards became popular. It was thought that spring began on Feb.
14, when birds began to mate. For this reason, the day was
devoted to love-making and kissing.
Geoffrey Chaucer, the English poet, wrote: "For this was on
seynt Valentine's day, when every foul cometh ther to chese his
make."
Today, flowers are synonymous with Valentine's Day and
different meanings are associated with different flowers.
Although roses are the true heart's desire of many women,
tulips are also traditional Valentine flowers.
TTie association of tulips with love is older than Valentine's
Day. An ancient Middle Eastern legend says that the first tulip
sprung when the tears of a lovesick Persian boy hit scorching
desert sands.