The Kissing Map

The Map of Romantic Kissing explores the custom of romantic kissing in cultures around the world. The practice of lovers touching lips is normal in some cultures. In other cultures kissing is not an established custom.

The Map of Romantic Kissing shows cultures where sexual-romantic kissing is practiced and also cultures where it isn't. The data for the map comes from the paper 'Is the Romantic-Sexual Kiss a Near Human Universal?', published in the American Anthropologist, 2015.

In the paper where the practice of kissing is unknown in a culture the authors have added that culture to the list of cultures that don't kiss. The Map of Romantic Kissing includes two layers. One layer includes the unknowns as part of the cultures that don't practice sexual-romantic kissing, as outlined in the research paper. The other layer actually shows the 'unknowns' as a third category, rather than subscribing those cultures to the list of culture which don't have the custom of kissing.