Re:First kiss dates back 21M years
by pfannkuchen on Monday November 24, 2025 @02:35AM
(#46031337)
Insufficiently analytical take.
Dogs are a special case. Humans are part of their soil, the soil they evolved in. They must have features (physical, behavioral) to manipulate humans into treating them like part of the group.
Think of the environment dogs evolved in. Small homogenous groups of humans. They aren’t even human, and humans still treated them as part of the in group, while at the same time killing people outside of their clan who looked and acted almost exactly like they did, certainly well within the bounds of what would today be a single nation or region within a nation.
Dogs and empathy towards them are totally compatible with human xenophobia or whatever we call it, there is no contradiction or hypocrisy here.
Re:First kiss dates back 21M years
by jimkleiber on Sunday November 23, 2025 @12:00PM
(#46025048)
Holding hands may also be from when babies latch on and don't let go because of the necessity of holding on to the parent. My friend's 2 year old grabbed my hand recently and it reminded me of their iron grip.
Re:First kiss dates back 21M years
by weregiraffe on Sunday November 23, 2025 @02:48PM
(#46026685)
Any touch can be erotic, depending on the context. That's why I'm skeptical about kissing being special. People have sex with their entire bodies, not just using genitals.
Re:First kiss dates back 21M years
by jvanderbot on Sunday November 23, 2025 @09:14AM
(#46023710)
Kissing is so weird. You can make up a thousand just-so stories. You can imagine it meant totally different things through time and across cultures.
For me it just seems like yet another culturally-defined signal of intimacy. Like showing ankles or chests or saying this or that. Seems to me trying to make everything some hard wired evolutionary thing is a dead end.
Re:First kiss dates back 21M years
by pfannkuchen on Monday November 24, 2025 @02:26AM
(#46031285)
Do hunter gatherers kiss near-universally? I think that would answer the question of whether it is nature or nurture.
I’m allowing for it to be suppressed at times by culture, but I would expect the instinctive behavior to win the majority of the time unless the instinctive behavior is somehow harmful in an environment different from the organism’s classic environment.
Re:First kiss dates back 21M years
by tylervigen on Monday November 24, 2025 @06:43AM
(#46033022)
The researchers found a common ancestor of many different species that all conduct non-functional kissing. The surprising thing about the research is that it specifically implies kissing is not cultural!
People having empathy for animals but not to humans who are different from them.
Humans have 46 chromosomes. Dogs have 78.
Dogs are a special case. Humans are part of their soil, the soil they evolved in. They must have features (physical, behavioral) to manipulate humans into treating them like part of the group.
Think of the environment dogs evolved in. Small homogenous groups of humans. They aren’t even human, and humans still treated them as part of the in group, while at the same time killing people outside of their clan who looked and acted almost exactly like they did, certainly well within the bounds of what would today be a single nation or region within a nation.
Dogs and empathy towards them are totally compatible with human xenophobia or whatever we call it, there is no contradiction or hypocrisy here.
This is innate “caring” behavior.
Similarly, mammary glands are for providing milk/nutrition.
These get associated with primal needs and therefore the amygdala, and so is associated with strong emotion.
I think my ancestors were something like monkeys.
We are not the same.
Actually it was revealed to me in a dream.
Monkeys have tails
/s
> Rather, it is a non-erotic but intimate greeting used by people who, when they meet outside, often have little except their nose and eyes exposed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_kiss
For me it just seems like yet another culturally-defined signal of intimacy. Like showing ankles or chests or saying this or that. Seems to me trying to make everything some hard wired evolutionary thing is a dead end.
I’m allowing for it to be suppressed at times by culture, but I would expect the instinctive behavior to win the majority of the time unless the instinctive behavior is somehow harmful in an environment different from the organism’s classic environment.
More than just "smooching," if DNA has anything to say about it...