Matilda Brindle, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford University, has dedicated years to uncovering the origins and purpose of one of humanity’s most intimate gestures: kissing. Her extensive research investigates when kissing first emerged among human ancestors and seeks to understand the evolutionary significance behind it. Armed with a number of hypotheses, Brindle seeks to illuminate why this seemingly universal behavior is so ingrained in human culture.
Brindle’s research has led her down a surreal route through deep evolutionary history. Foster’s research indicates that kissing probably evolved in a shared ancestor of most large apes. This evolutionary event occurred at least 21.5 million years ago to be valid. This find corroborates her perceptions as an intuition. Prime kissing modern-day primates, including chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans all partake in kissing-like activities as well.
“Chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans all appear to kiss,” – Dr. Matilda Brindle
Exploring the Purpose of Kissing
In her latest research, Brindle explains what kissing can do for human relationships. She proposes that kissing has evolved into a mechanism for people to evaluate mates. This type of choosing behavior is beneficial for people to assess both physical and relational chemistry. Additionally, she highlights its importance in community building, especially among women.
“In terms of platonic kissing, it’s really useful for bonding,” – Dr. Matilda Brindle
Kissing is common in social contexts. It makes complicated family relationships more awesome. According to Brindle, the act of kissing serves as a “non-agonistic interaction involving directed intraspecific oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips or mouth parts, and no food transfer.”
Even with her conclusive findings, Brindle admits that there is yet more research needed before we can really understand all the complex details involved in kissing. She explains that even though millions of Americans do this every day, the reasons for these behaviors are still relatively understudied.
“We do it every day. It’s got massive cultural significance in many societies, and yet we don’t really understand why it exists,” – Dr. Matilda Brindle
Historical Context and Future Research
Brindle’s exploration of kissing is just one small piece of a larger, deeper desire to know and understand human behavior through an evolutionary lens. Her past studies included the evolutionary history of the penis bone in several animal species as well as the evolutionary origin of masturbation. She is on a mission to rebuild the kisser’s past. Her aim is to give a broad, historical context to how this destructive behavior has affected the way humans interact today.
Her findings indicate that social kissing has had an important role in non-reproductive social contexts in our hominin evolution. It has been flexible enough to serve the needs of changing communities.
“There’s loads to be done in this area, and it’s really, really exciting,” – Dr. Matilda Brindle
Brindle is just getting started on her research. She continues hopeful about finding out more about the origins of kissing and its significance in human relationships. She maintains that by better understanding these inherited behaviors we can find clues to our evolutionary history and better explain today’s relational patterns.
A Romantic Spin on Evolution
Brindle’s investigations raise the fascinating possibility that kissing had important roles in ancient human intimacy and attachment. She suspects this behavior could have added a sexual or romantic dimension to contact between early humans and Neanderthals. It brings a really interesting element to their dynamic!
“But it does put a bit more of a romantic spin on the human-Neanderthal relationship,” – Dr. Matilda Brindle
As Brindle moves into the next phases of her study, she has been thinking a lot about the nature of attraction and compatibility. Her reflections reveal that even simple actions such as kissing can carry deep political responsibilities for intimate relations.
“I think we’ve all been there, where you’ve kissed someone and you’ve been like, ‘oh, actually, this isn’t going to work,’” – Dr. Matilda Brindle
