Lips: Introduction

Lips come in many shapes and colours. They can be full or modest, light or dark. Lips can be a great indicator of health status as their paleness can signal, among many things, dehydration, anaemia and diabetes. Just think of Jack’s (Leonardo di Caprio) lips while Rose was taking up all the space on that wooden door. They clearly show that Jack has been through healthier times.

 

Lips tend to be highly gendered, as they are usually associated to the female body, and as a consequence are also sexualised. While girls have the choice of  numerous shades of lipsticks, it is often deemed unacceptable for men to wear such. The only product such are “allowed” to use is chap-stick, yet even this is not used much. Lips can also be motherly: think of the kiss on the forehead you received as a child when your mum was checking if you had a temperature (good, old days- am I right?).

Further, what might distinguish us humans from all other species comes out of our lips: words, or language. The only way for one to learn how to speak is to grasp the correct ways through which to move his/her lips. In some cultures you are also expected to “learn” how to kiss your partner. Everyone is nervous the first time, but then you realise it is actually pleasant.

( after this post, read from the bottom-up)

Bibliography

giphy.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2017, from http://giphy.com/gifs/titanic-inception-dicaprio-YE9A1qSEn0gV2

Lips don’t lie

 

 

Lips can be read to compensate for the lack of hearing. Lip reading enables a person to “listen” by watching a speaker’s movement of lips, and it is often thought of as a “third ear” for those with hearing problems. With visions’ assistance and the learning to decipher the cues provided by the tongue, teeth and lips, one can master “lip reading” (A Beginner’s Guide to Lipreading, 2013). This “habitus” can be learnt both in class or online, and has been described by deaf people as “life-changing”, since it enhances their communication skills greatly. Of the 8 million people affected by hearing loss in Britain, only 70’000 use British Sign Language. Hence, everyone else relies to some extent on lip reading (What is Lipreading?). Further, this communication technique is subconsciously acquired by people with normal hearing as well. Most people develop a general degree of subconscious ability to integrate visual with auditory information, to assist the decoding of speech. This “habitus” proves of great value to select between consonant sounds when background noise is present (Holmes & Holmes, 2001).

 

 

Nonetheless, lip reading does not just entail the deciphering of words; lips can say many things without the use of words. This technique requires the facial gestures and expressions to be considered as well. Most emotions can be detected from the movement of lips, from rage to compassion. In fact Japan, the “Robotic Kingdom” (Sabanovic, 2014), has created the robot “Pepper”, a potential companion for humans, which recognizes emotions through facial expressions, body gestures and words.Happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, anger and sadness are the 6 basic expressions that are considered to be human universals. “Pepper” has been programmed to detect these ubiquitous, innate gestures  and once an emotion is detected, it will adjust its behaviour in response (McDonald, 2015). While it is hard to predict if this robot’s artificial intelligence will be able to emphasize with humans, and if its use, affection, will prevent an “uncanny” feeling. What can be asserted, however, is that lips do not lie: their movements are fundamental in vocal and emotional communication.

 

 

 

Bibliography

A Beginner’s Guide to Lipreading. (2013). Retrieved March 21, 2017, from Lipreading.org: https://www.lipreading.org/beginners-guide-to-lipreading

Holmes, J., & Holmes, W. (2001). Speech Synthesis and Recognition. London: Taylor & Francis.

McDonald, S. (2015). Read my lips: truly empathic robots will be a long time coming. Retrieved March 21, 2017, from The Conversation: http://theconversation.com/read-my-lips-truly-empathic-robots-will-be-a-long-time-coming-47266

Sabanovic, S. (2014). Inventing Japan’s ‘robotics culture’: The repeated assembly of science, technology, and culture in social robotics. Social Studies of Science .

What is Lipreading? (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2017, from Hearing Link: https://www.hearinglink.org/living/lipreading-communicating/what-is-lipreading/

Love defeats the “Uncanny Valley”

The “uncanny” is a remote region in the subconscious, a feeling aroused by something we find “terrifying”, “repulsive”, and once familiar (Freud, 1919). This “strangeness” can emerge through humans’ interaction with robots; those mechanical objects designed with a function and labour in mind, which nowadays are quasi-ubiquitous. In fact, the word “robot” comes from the Slavic word for “work” (Capek, 1919; 2008).

For some functionality is just as important as the human-resemblance of a robot. Mori (1970) describes the “Uncanny Valley” as the strangeness that pervades us once we engage with a robot. A prosthetic hand, for instance, might have veins, fingernails and could even have skin resembling human pigmentation, yet by touching it its hard texture and coldness show. One enters the “terrifying” “Uncanny Valley”, as the prosthetic hand’s appearance is quite human, however its familiarity is negative. Further, Mori believes the adding of movement exaggerates the peaks of the valley even further, and predicts it is only possible to produce safe familiarity through non-human design.

 

However, Mori did not consider what the addition of LOVE would do to the “uncanny equation”. “Kissinger” is an app that provides a way for kisses to travel through digital media. An attachment with silicone lips is connected to one’s phone, and its use produces bidirectional-kissing sensations. The lips move corresponding to partners’ movements, thanks to its numerous sensors (Povicelli, 2015). “Kissinger” was made for long-distance relationships, to facilitate intimate human tele-presence (Lovotics: Kiss Messenger, A Lovotics Application). This app has been widely appreciated and researchers aim to achieve its full human-resemblance. In fact, one can now add his partner’s perfume or odour to the device, to make the kiss even more realistic, and can see his forehead on the screen (Maguire, 2016). A “Motherboard” journalist tried with his girlfriend Lucy Professor Cheok’s latest “kissing robot”. “There was definitely something new about the experience, but it was psychological. The fact that I knew that Lucy and I were looking at each other over video-call… the sensation was one of mild vibration, also what appeared on the screen was not what you would see while kissing (just a forehead)….on the plus side, the Kissinger material did not feel too fake to the touch: it wasn’t like kissing real skin, but it wasn’t like rubbing your mouth on a plastic bucket either”. This article is significant; the “uncanny valley” is a remote area in the subconscious, and can be avoided through the psychological acknowledging that your partner is moving the technologic lips. Whilst Mori holds the “Uncanny Valley” climaxes through robots’ movement, it seems as though the recognition that this movement is familiar, as it comes from your lover, prevents the “repulsive” feeling, and generates one of affection. The journalist also points to “Kissinger’s” texture; the relatively soft lips (and a partner’s perfume) prevent the robot from seeming “terrifying”.

 

 

Capek in the 1919 (Capek, 1919; 2008, p. 25) imagined robots’ labour would have resulted in the elimination of the proletariat, and the emerging of a universal bourgeoisie. He stated “you will be free and supreme”. Unfortunately, robots have not yet unburdened us from the class system, England especially; for now however we can assert “ you are free… to have long-distance relationships”. The “Uncanny Valley” does not appear when one engages with a robot, if it is love that it is moving such.

 

 

Bibliography

Capek, C. (1919; 2008). Two Plays by Karel ?apek: R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) & The Robber.

Freud, S. ( 1919). The “Uncanny”. Sammlung .

Lovotics: Kiss Messenger, A Lovotics Application. (n.d.). Retrieved 2017, from http://kissenger.lovotics.com/

Maguire, D. (2016). Long distance lovers can now kiss via the magic of robotics. Retrieved March 21, 2017, from Pickle: http://pickle.nine.com.au/2016/12/21/14/52/long-distance-lovers-can-now-kiss-via-the-magic-of-robotics

Mori, M. (1970). The Uncanny Valley. Energy .

Povicelli, G. (2015). I Made Out With a Robot Mouth So I Could Kiss My Girlfriend Through the Internet. Retrieved March 21, 2017, from MOTHERBOARD: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/i-made-out-with-a-robot-mouth-so-i-could-kiss-my-girlfriend-through-the-internet

The Enhancement of the Lips

 

Through the proper alterations, the self can be promoted. Seeing how lips are perceived as gendered and sexual, such body parts have been enhanced for the past thousands of years. Different cultures have differing techniques to accentuate their lips. Lipstick is a pigmented, emollient cosmetic that is applied on the lips. The ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, who created such through semiprecious jewels, plant extracts, pulverized insects and iodine, used the earliest versions of lipstick (V.Pitts-Taylor, 2008). Today lipstick is obtained by standardized chemical pigments using waxes and oils, yet its purpose remains the same: to beautify the lips. Studies have revealed that lipstick actually tricks the eye into perceiving the wearer as having fuller lips  (V.Pitts-Taylor, 2008). This cosmetic also emphasizes the mouth’s sexuality, as it is used in the West to signals a girl’s passing from girlhood to womanhood; it is commonly employed during their reproductive age. As mentioned, brightly coloured lips suggest youth and health in women. Given lipstick’s connotations of female beauty and sexuality, it is often an indispensable prop for some transgender people. The Hijra’s of India do not consider themselves neither man nor woman; they are a third category (Nanda, 1990). Most of them are born males however do not identify as such. They act as men when dancing in the public, and are “like” women as they wear saris, have long hair and wear lipstick. Hence “hijras” do not understand themselves as women, however wish to incorporate female features by, for instance, wearing lipstick.

There is another reason why lipsticks are able to beautify people. The perception of colour. Different colours have differing effects on humans, depending on the notions attached to them. Red, the most common lipstick colour, is the shade the eye falls on the first. Not only does it signal health biologically, culturally in the West it is linked to passion and excitement (Elliot & Niesta, 2008). A study (Guéguen & Jacob, 2012) conducted in France investigated if female waiters were tipped differently when wearing red lipstick. Notably, leaving a tip in France is unusual as it is included in the service charge, however a strong correlation between lipstick wearing and tipping was noticed. Red enhances male’s attraction to females, increasing lipstick’s “effectiveness”.

 

Foucault identified the technologies of the self: they allow individuals through their own means, or with others’ help, and a series of operations on their bodies, conducts, thoughts, way of being, to transform themselves and acquire happiness, wisdom, perfection, purity or immorality ( Foucault, 1998). These operations allow self-promotion,and until now one has analysed the operations that can be carried out by an individual. Lipstick is usually applied by the wearer; on the other hand, the more permanent lip modifications tend to require others’ aid.  The first lip enhancement surgeries, typically seen in women, started in the 1900s where paraffin was used to make the lips plumper. Today doctors only inject collagen , a protein found in animal and human skin. Given the body regularly absorbs it,  one must  regularly inject it (V.Pitts-Taylor, 2008). This frequent augmentation is incredibly common, as more than 27’000 procedures took place in America in 2016 (Miller, 2016). A lip enhancement thus takes place every 20 minutes, and its frequency has increased by 43% since 2000 (Miller, 2016). At times, what is used to beautify the lips, is deemed aesthetically unappealing in other body parts. In “fat transfer” operations, fat is taken from a “donor site” from the person who wishes to augment their lips, and it is placed in the latter area. Win-Win situation! “A moment on the hips, a lifetime on the lips (if you continue getting fat transfers)”. Hence, this “technology of the self” only takes 20 minutes, and as full lips are associated to beauty, it is common for women to augment such body part. One can assume  happiness, growth of self-esteem and perceived perfection all result from this enhancement.

Plate-wearing is another lip modification, and while it used to be found in the Amazon basin, in the American Northwest, as well as other places, it is now mostly associated with sub-Saharan Africa. In Ethiopia the Mursi stretch the lower lip to signal a girl’s coming of marriageable age. At 15 years of age a mother will initiate her daughter with a small incision of the lip, and the placement of a piece of jewellery. Gradually the lip will be stretched with larger pieces of jewellery, throughout engagement and marriage. Similarly to lipstick’s use in the West this signals sexual maturity and beauty,and also  serves as a sense of ethnic pride to distinguish the Mursi from other tribes (V.Pitts-Taylor, 2008). Parallels can be drawn to Strathern’s (1979) analysis of self-decoration among Hagen men. The latter use face-paint, clothing and other decoration both to bring out their own beauty, as well as to celebrate the group and its strength. Mursi women too employ lip-plates to beautify themselves as individuals and concurrently to celebrate their tribe.They do not belong to any other group: they are “pure” Mursi.

 

The body can be treated as a canvas, it can be modified and has been for thousands of years. Given lips are linked to notions of beauty and sexuality in many cultures, different cultures have found permanent and non-permanent ways to enhance these body parts and thus their connotations.

 

Bibliography

Elliot, A., & Niesta, D. (2008). Romantic red: red enhances men’s attraction to women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 2008.

Foucault, Management and Organization Theory: From Panoptic on to Technologies of Self Foucault, management and organization theory: From panoptic on to technologies of self. (1998).

Guéguen, N., & Jacob, C. (2012). Lipstick and tipping behavior: When red lipstick enhance waitresses tips.

Miller, K. (2016). You Won’t Believe How Many Women Are Getting Lip Augmentation Surgery. Retrieved 03 04, 2017 from Self: http://www.self.com/story/you-wont-believe-how-many-women-are-getting-lip-augmentation-surgery

(1990). Hjiras as Neither Man nor Woman, . In S. Nanda, Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hjiras of India. Belmont: Wadsworth Publlishing Company.

Strathern, M. (1979). The self in self-decoration. In Oceania.

V.Pitts-Taylor. (2008). Cultural Encyclopedia of the Body. ABC-CLIO.

Gendered and Sexualised: the perception of lips

Why is it that women can choose from hundreds of different lipstick shades, and men are typically judged when they decide to use one of these? Why is it that when you type “lips” on Google, you might have to scroll through 15 pages of sexy, red female lips before you find  male ones. If both females and males have this fleshy body part, why is mainly associated to the female body?

 

 

Biology will aid our understanding. Women have higher levels of positive assertion in their emotional expression than males, both verbally and non-verbally. For the latter case, this is demonstrated by the fact that women laugh more, and significantly, smile more. As a result, women move their lips five times more than men (Worrell, 2001). Further, men cross-culturally select females partly through their lips’ size and appearance. Darwin stated there could be consistency in facial attractiveness judgements, and recent studies have showed he was correct. The “Multiple Fitness Model” of social perception links the perceiver’s evaluations of a mate’s attractiveness and implicit fitness for various biological, social, and personal challenges (Cunningham, Roberts, Barbee, & Druen, 1995). Interestingly, physically attractive features evolve as symbols of social and biological fitness. Women tend to display larger lips than men, which signal motivational dispositions more than gender cues. Smiles suggest congeniality and happiness, and vivid lips suggest health and arousal. In fact, full lips are signs of sexual maturity as they grow with increased estrogen levels, and become brighter in colour. Therefore, expressive features as these suggest a responsive friend or sexual mate, usually anywhere in the world. Humans tend to interpret facial expression of facial motivation with cross-cultural consistency; smiles are understood as physically attractive in most culture. Cunnigham et al. (1995) examined 13 countries with Asian, White, Hispanic and African populations and found a recurring appreciation in women, by men, of fuller lower lips and larger smiles. The Asian populations reported being less interested than the other groups in sexual maturity features, yet still appreciated full lips to small ones. Therefore, the feminine connotations of the lips seem to be related to females’ innate predispositions, and selected-for features. Females tend to have fuller lips, and employ them more on a daily basis. Also, lips are noticed by males when selecting their partner, as smiling is a cue for friendliness, and fuller, brighter lips suggest sexual maturity. Not only does this explain why lips are gendered, it also sheds light on the common sexualisation of lips. Lips’ sexiness, however,  also derives from a trait males and females share: lips contain a high concentration of nerve endings, making it a sensitive tactile organ. The sensitivity of the lips makes them easily stimulated; this is one of the reasons why kissing is pleasurable.

 

 

 

There are certain expectations and implications that come with the embodiment of gender. When cheerleading first appeared it was mostly a male sport; nonetheless, in the last decades, it has become perceived as a feminine one despite the presence of men. Cheerleading is essentially an emotional performance of spirit, where shouting and smiling enhances other’s efforts, and communicates goodwill and co-operation (Grindstaff & West, 2010). Smiles in particular must be used as a signal of emotional performance, and women are instructed to do so more than men. During trainings men will get away with a half-hearted effort, whilst coaches will constantly hound females to smile and be spirited; some coaches report putting Vaseline on the cheerleaders’ teeth to keep them smiling. Cheerleaders will also practice in a circle so that they can monitor each other, or will work on their smiling in front of a mirror. “Hands on hips, smile on lips!” (Grindstaff & West, 2010). It is believed that men, on the other hand, can cheerlead and signal support without needing to smile as much. Given females’ natural tendency to smile, and the resulting  feminine connotations of lips,  such are expected to do so more than men whilst cheerleading, and earn the sport the “girly” title. Further, the differing ways through which sexes enact spirit show how deeply emotion performances are entrenched with hetero-normative gender scripts. Women tend to inherently smile more than men, yet this act has now become  expected in the first  in contexts as cheerleading, as they are assumed to express emotion through such. Gender is not just biological, it is performative as well.

 

 

Physical capital can be attached to differing models of femininity and masculinity. “Duck Face” was recently added to the Oxford Dictionary: an exaggerated pouting expression where the lips are thrust outwards, typically made by a person posing for a photograph (Steinmetz, 2014). This “habitus” was given a name in the past few years when it became prevalent among selfies-takers, however it has been embodied since the 1980s in mass media and pop-culture. It was seen in female models and dancers, and typically noticed in males only when adopting a parody of women. Today, the “duck face” is much more common, yet it is still largely employed by females who use it as an attractive, sexual expression, or as self-deprecating one. (Unfortunately the founder of the dating site “OkCupid” says smiling is more appreciated by men than pouting. Hence it is NOT an “adaptive” behaviour (Miller, 2011)). While “duck faces” are a sexual “habitus” in the Western world, it is employed differently in Japan. White-collar males tend to pout their lips in Japan, which suffests deep contemplation or decision-making (Migdalek, 2014). Therefore, a habitus as “ duck face” can be used to manifest femininity and masculinity depending on contexts. Females and males come to a very strong perception of gender from a young age as a result of socialization that emphasizes the differences between sexes (Migdalek, 2014). Males tend to only use a “duck face” in the West if parodying females, however will use it as a signal of concentration in Japan. Gender is both biological and performative: women might be born with bigger lips and tendencies to smile, yet the pouting pose only signals femininity in the West.

 

Bibliography

Cunningham, M. R., Roberts, A. R., Barbee, A., & Druen, P. B. (1995). “Their Ideas of Beauty Are, on the Whole, the Same as Ours”: Consistency and Variability in the Cross-Cultural Perception of Female Physical Attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology .

Grindstaff, L., & West, E. (2010). “Hands on Hips, Smiles on Lips!” Gender, Race, and the Performance of Spirit in Cheerleading. Text and Performance Quarterly .

Migdalek, J. (2014). The Embodied Performance of Gender. London: Routledge.

Miller, S. (2011). Duck Hunting On the Internet. Retrieved 03 04, 2017 from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/fashion/duckface-photos-on-facebook-draw-backlash.html?_r=0

Steinmetz, K. (2014). Oxford Dictionaries Adds ‘Duck Face,’ ‘Man Crush’ and ‘Lolcat’. Retrieved 03 04, 2017 from Time: Newsfeed: http://time.com/3617335/oxford-duck-face-lolcat/

Worrell, J. (2001). Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender,. Academic Press.

 

 

 

Lips Politicised

Not only can lips be used for “entertaining” activities as kissing, to render the body perfect in birth rituals, or to facilitate one’s travel to the afterlife; they can be used as effective political tools as well. By looking at Petr Pavlensky’s picture one can notice his lips are sewed up, similarly to the Nasca trophy heads. Nonetheless, the artist and the trophy heads could not be more far apart. Just to recap: the Nasca sewed up their prisoners’ of war lips to seal their souls within their bodies. These trophy heads were at times buried in the ground to make such more fertile.

 

In 2012 Petr joined one of the many protests against the Pussy Riot’s incarceration. The feminist punk rock group had perfomed an anti-Putin protest in Moscow’s Cathedal, and had been charged with “hooliganism”. The group faced 7 years in jail if convicted. Petr  denounced this charge by holding a sign saying “ Pussy Riot is a replay of a famous act by Jesus”, and by sewing his lips with thread and needle. When later asked why he decided to perform this painful act, the artist explained “ by sewing up my mouth, I showed the situation of the contemporary artist in Russia, living in an environment where there’s a ban on publicity, the tightening of censorship and suppression of public statements in contemporary art” (Read an interview with the Russian protester who sewed his mouth shut, 2012). Whilst this performance was used to condemn the lack of freedom of expression in Russian art, it opens up a far wider problem: democracy in Russia. In fact, the government uses the ritual punishment of groups as Pussy Riot to intimidate all citizens, not just artists, and prevent others from doing the same. Petr, in a similar antagonizing way, was removed and sent to a psychiatric hospital shortly after (and found sane) (Petr Pavlensky v Vladimir Putin, 2012).

 

It was only after Petr’s sewing of lips that protests as this one gained international attention. Why is it? Well, remember when I briefly mentioned the most common use for lips? Yeah, talking. That’s what many of us do throughout our life to communicate. Usually a person will utter a word ( that by itself is purely arbitrary, bla bla bla), and the listener will understand what he/she means thanks to the assigning of words to signs. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all individuals are allowed freedom of expression: the right to hold beliefs without interference, and to impart these through any information (Freedom of Expression). By sewing his lips, Petr strives to emphasize people’s lack of this right in Russia. As opposed to shouting his ideas in the protest, he realises it is more powerful to challenge the Russian state of oppression by representing it on his own body. His lips come to symbolise the system, hence are politicised. Petr’s body becomes a tool, a “disobedient object”.

 

Going back to the trophy heads, the agency is opposite in the ritual and the artistic performance. The artist sewed his own lips as a means to denounce Russia’s strict publicity ban. He decides to inflict this pain on himself for his own purposes. Instead, the Nasca sewed the lips of their prisoners of war, and did this to prevent their fighting back. Further, the artist’s “sealing” of lips, far from enclosing his soul, allows his beliefs to travel throughout the world. It gained the political situation thousands of viewers. In fact, the trophy heads and Petr’s act might have one thing in common: while the first made the Nasca’s land fertile, the second turned the Russian “land” fertile by opening up discourses. How does that saying go again? “ An image is worth a thousand words. The sewing of the lips is worth ten thousand”.

 

Bibliography

Freedom of Expression. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 02, 2017, from Freedom House: https://freedomhouse.org/issues/freedom-expression

Petr Pavlensky v Vladimir Putin. (2012). Retrieved 03 02, 2017, from Dazed: http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/14077/1/petr-pavlensky-v-vladimir-putin

Read an interview with the Russian protester who sewed his mouth shut. (2012). Retrieved 03 02, 2017, from FACT: http://www.factmag.com/2012/07/26/read-an-interview-with-the-russian-protester-who-sewed-his-mouth-shut/

Kiss of Birth, Kiss of Death

 

While some might consider the body perfect upon birth, this is not always the case. In certain cosmologies babies are seen as being born “incomplete”, and a post-partum ritual is used to modify their bodies. The aim is not merely to alter, rather to turn the body into its “perfect” version: a “Vitruvian body”, in Western terms. Van Gennep (1960) notices that populations in society belong to differing groups, and hierarchies exist among such. A ceremony, or ritual, is employed for one to transition between these groupings. Rituals symbolize the crossing of borders, and are divided into three phases: pre-liminal, liminal and post-liminal. Respectively, the separation from one’s initial group, the in-between-ness between two statuses, and the newly acquired status. Douglas (1966) focuses as well on the symbolism of rituals, yet emphasizes their boundary-maintenance use. Dirt is any matter understood as being out of place, and must be considered for one to grasp societies’ functioning. In fact, wherever there is dirt, there is a system. The means with which people create order, or eliminate dirt, is specific to cultures’ conceptual systems, and without such actions their worlds would be static. Further, purity is the enemy of change (1966: 200).

 

It is believed, in Judaism, that when a child is in its mother’s womb a candle burns beside it, and an angel teaches it the Torah. Just before birth the angel touches the child on the lips, who forgets all that it had learnt. All children are born with a cleft upper lip due to the angelic finger, and the Torah’s learning is considered a process of remembering (Holm & Bowker, 1994). Lips are often connected to birth, and are used in rituals where the body is perfected. Sikh’s welcome all children as gifts of God, and whilst their religious education is initiated shortly after birth, when their fathers start reciting the Mool Mantar, their naming ceremony occurs 40 days after; the Nam Karan (Keene, 1994) (Gatrad, Jhutti-Johal, & Gill, 2005). The Granthi performs the ritual and gives the baby amrit, the nectar of life. The dissolving of water and sugar crystals, and the Granthi’s recital of verses from the holy book produce this. The elixir is then placed on the child’s lip, while the Granthi prays for the child’s long life and for him to make his parents proud:

The Word of the Master is extremely sweet,
Such an elixir one finds within,
Whosoever tastes of It, gets perfected,
O Nanak! such a one remains in perpetual bliss. (Parbhati MI)

The Word of the Master is the Water of Life,
To drink It is to quench all thirst.
The mind verily gets drenched in Truth,
And always remains absorbed in Truth.  (Sri Rag M3)

(Gatrad, Jhutti-Johal, & Gill, 2005)

After, the child is ready to be named, thus the Granthi opens the holy book at random, and the first word at the top left is read to the parents. The name chosen will begin with the initial letter of that word. Further, in rejection to the Hindu caste system, all Sikhs add the name Sigh, lion, to the forename of their son, and Kaur, princess, for their daughters. These names are supposed to create equality between all Sikh. Several important points can be drawn from this ritual. Firstly, the masculine and feminine forenames might create equality among all; yet maintain gender binaries at the same time. The Hmong, for instance, call the placenta jacket, as they believe such must be worn again after death. To facilitate its finding, and to prevent souls from being lost, men’s placentas are placed under their houses’ pillar, whilst women’s under the hearth. This placing both aids souls to the afterlife, and symbolises the female-male dichotomy; the male being the pillar of the family (Fadiman, 1997). In a similar manner, the “lion-princess” naming  system create a binary between genders. Further, a child in the Nam Karan travels between the non-human to human status, as the body here is considered normal only once it has been modified; in fact can only be named after this occurs. The amrit is fundamental to purify the non-human body; the chants emphasize how such is perfected through the elixir, and the truth that originates from it. Truth is synonymous of clarity, purity.  This ritual improves the child’s life, and that of his parents. Thus the altering of the body affects both the baby’s world, and that of his kin.

 

In Sudanese the term “Tahur”, or circumcision, denotes purification (Gruenbaum, 2001).Female circumcision is a purifying ritual that involves the vulva, and at times its lips. It occurs in North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Muslim Middle East, Jewish Diaspora, the Pacific Islands, Aboriginal Australia and South East Asia; and is carried out on girls from infancy to the age of 15 (Silverman, 2004). The World Health Organization, which has defined this practice as a human rights’ violation, identifies three different types: “summa circumcision”, type I, is the removal of the clitoral prepuce; type II is the removal of the clitoridectomy; and “pharaonic circumcision”, type III, is the removal of the labia minora, labia majora, prepuce and clitoris. As the lips are cut in the latter type, the vagina is sewed together and a small opening is left open for urine and menstrual blood. While there are numerous ethical claims surrounding such ritual, this blog will not assess such. Van Gennep defines circumcisions as marking the separation from childhood. How is this crossing achieved? Similarly to the rationale guiding Jewish circumcision, certain cosmologies believe female “wholeness” will only result from the circumcision of their unclean, impure genital. This will ensure purity. A female’s body will be considered androgynous, as opposed to perfect, without this practice. Female circumcision will signal the transition to adulthood, and perfection. Again, order is created within these cosmologies through the use of people’s bodies, where their conceptual worlds are represented. In fact, men in Sudan will expose their penis to emphasize their freedom to venture outside. Women’s encision, nonetheless, corresponds to their “enclosedness” within the village (Boddy, 1982) .Male: Female:: Outside: Inside. A body in this context is only truly born, or “whole”, once its impure parts are removed, order is created, and it represents its conceptual frame.

Lips are also linked to passing, the most famous example being “the Kiss of Death”. This idiom comes from the kiss Judas gave Jesus for the Romans to recognize him. In the Hindu culture, a dead person is placed on the floor in the house’s entryway, facing south (Hymalayan Publications, 2007) (Parkes, Laungani, & Young, 2015). This position reflects a return to the lap of Mother Earth, and is meant to aid the soul’s journey to it. The process is also assisted through the gathering of kin around the body, the placing of a basil leaf that has been dipped in the River Ganges onto its lips, and the singing of holy songs. The water is considered holy. Similarities are noticed between the understanding of birth and death: the Sikh cleanse the body for it to become “whole”, and the Hindu purify such for so that it can reach Mother Earth. In both instances, the crossing of borders is achieved through the elimination of impurity.

 

Until now I have hinted to the “access-point” or “leaving-point” provided by the enclosure the lips surround, the mouth, without mentioning it. A Sikh drinks amrit, or a dead Hindu is given the Ganges’ holy water: the first purifies the soul for it to reach wholeness, and the second cleanses it so that it can leave the body more easily. These rituals function thanks to the powerful portal the mouth symbolizes. The Nasca were a culture that populated areas of Peru from 100 BC until 800 AD, and their trophy head rituals underline how the mouth provides an entry to the soul (Proulx, 2006). The Nasca were often involved in warfare, and would turn their war opponents’ heads into trophies, by pinning their lips shut with thorns. This ritual’s use was to prevent the prisoners to  fight them again in the future, by sealing the soul within the body. By sewing their mouths, their souls would be enclosed in the body forever. Hence the prisoners’ status is static: they cannot transit to the afterlife. Moreover,  the trophy heads were also linked to agricultural fertility, as Nasca iconography includes depictions of plants sprouting from the trophy heads, which were buried in the ground. At times, others’ bodies can be modified to alter one’s own society: the Nasca used their prisoners’ heads to create fertility in their lands.

 

Bibliography

Boddy, J. (1982). Womb as Oasis: The Symbolic Context of Pharaonic Circumcision in Rural Northern Sudan. American Ethnologist .

Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and Danger. New York: Routledge.

Fadiman, A. (1997). “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Gatrad, R., Jhutti-Johal, J., & Gill, P. (2005). Sikh Birth Customs. Archives of Disease in Childhood .

Gennep, A. V. (1960). Rites De Passage. London: Routledge.

Gruenbaum, E. (2001). The Female Circumcision Controversy: an anthropological perspective. Philadelphia: University of Pensylvania Press.

Holm, J., & Bowker, J. (1994). Rites Of Passage. London: A&C Black.

Keene, M. (1994). New Steps in Religious Education: Teacher’s Support. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes.

Parkes, C. M., Laungani, P., & Young, W. (2015). Death and Bereavement Across Cultures. London: Routledge.

Proulx, D. A. (2006). A Sourcebook of Nasca Ceramic Iconography: reading a culture through its art. Iowa: Iowa University Press.

Publications, H. A. (2007). What Is Hinduism? modern adventures into a profound global faith. Hawaii: Kapaa.

Silverman, E. (2004). Anthropology and Circumcision. Annual Review Anthropoloy , 33:419–45.

Kissing: Ubiquitous motion of emotion?

What is a movement commonly carried out by lips? Well, talking might be the most common, but there is a specific one that is far more emblematic. KISSING. Romantic-sexual kissing is understood as a lip-to-lip contact that may or may not be prolonged (Jankowiak, Volsche, & Garcia, 2015). This act is ubiquitous in Western popular culture, ranging from Romeo and Juliet’s well-known kiss, to the picture of the Navy sailor and the nurse kissing in Times Square in 1945. While a kiss can be a trait of affection, kisses in popular culture tend to express intimacy, or are symbols of sexual desire.

 

Where does this gesture come from? Why do we pick a person and decide to share our saliva with them? This peculiar phenomenon can be understood as evolutionary. Kissing can be beneficial to both parties involved, as cholesterol levels decrease with the increased duration of romantic kissing. Oxytocin release is also heightened, a hormone often referred to as “forgetting oneself”, as it creates a sense of falling in love by enhancing self-esteem, optimism and trust (Body Ecology: The Way to Be). In fact, kissing is an adaptive behaviour used to test partners, and the differing importance given to it by males and females mirrors their different mating strategies. Females can only have a limited number of offspring, and thus maximise their reproductive success by selecting their mates wisely and assessing those who will invest in their offspring. Males, on the other hand, will increase their reproductive success by having many short-term sexual partners (Trivers, 1972). Hughes et al.’s (2007) research revealed both males and females intentionally employ kissing as a mate assessment device. Males noted a preference for “tongue kissing”, which functions as an unconscious test to determine if a female is near her ovulatory peak: the only time the latter can effectively conceive. Females use kissing to understand if their partners are faithful and long-term oriented. Further, females noted kissing as being more important than males, and believe its importance to increase as the relationship develops; males think the opposite. The attention females give to the assessment of male’s long-term commitment is reflected in the value attributed to kisses throughout relationships.

Wlodarski and Dumbar (2014) argue kissing is a mate-testing device as well, where socio-sexual attunement and health are judged. Moreover they understand this evolutionary beneficial behaviour as being a human universal. A demonstration of love inherent in all human beings. Is kissing a cross-cultural romantic expression ? Or is it learnt? The nature-nurture debate haunts us once again. By nurture one means that the human mind is formed by experience and by nature one implies that one is born already with innate traits and they are largely immutable.

Wlodarski and Dumbar (2014) cite Eibl-Eibeseldt (1972) to claim kissing’s universality, nonetheless the second argued that non-sexual kissing, from adult to child, or child to adult, could be said  to be universal. As mentioned before, kissing can have different meanings, and it is important to distinguish an affiliative gesture between kin, from an erotic behaviour between lovers. Interestingly, Malinowski (2005) noted that whilst kissing is the main erotic preliminary in the United States and Europe, romantic-sexual kisses are not part of Trobianders’ lovemaking. The latter know of this mouth-to-mouth act performed by Westerners, but regard it as being a silly and insipid form of amusement. Further, kisses are not even used in ritual acts or expressions of affection. A mother, for instance, will touch her child with her lip, or cheek, and breathe upon it; nonetheless, the exact technique of kissing is not noticed. The rubbing of noses, vayauli, on the other hand is a rare greeting used among close kin. Hence the gesture of kissing does not exist among Trobianders (Malinowski, 2005). Instead of signalling love cross-culturally ( Wlodarski and Dumbar, 2014), or affection (Eibl-Eibeseldt, 1972), kissing does not express either emotion in the Trobiands.

Could it be a near universal act then? Malinowski believed romantic-sexual kissing to be specific to the Indo-European horizon, and this has been recently shown to be true. Jankowiak et al. (2015) considered 168 cultures between Middle America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, South America, North America, Middle East and Caribbean to determine the use of romantic-sexual kisses. Importantly, 54% of these cultures do not kiss, while 46% do. Populations in New Guinea, Sub-Saharan Africa and Amazonia have never been noticed engaging in romantic-sexual kisses. In fact, there is a relationship between the complexity of a society and the presence of kissing: the more stratified a society, the increased occurrence of kisses. This might coincide with factors as oral hygiene. Jankowiak et al.’s study is significant in that it reveals that far from being cross-cultural, kissing is a cultural gesture of love. As opposed to being innate, kisses are a “technique du corp” (Mauss, 1973) or a habitus: a skill, or habit acquired through cultural capital (Bourdieu, Outline of A Theory of Practice, 1977). It might feel natural  to kiss someone you find attractive, however it is a disposition learnt through life experience. This behaviour will be performed instinctively only once it is acquired. Blacking’s (1983) analysis of dance can be extended to kissing:  movements cannot be understood outside the conceptual world of their users, and their context of use. It is often claimed that these acts originate from the unconscious, yet reason is not abandoned for emotion when they are carried out. This will be further analysed later. Instead, the difficulty felt when trying to describe these gestures is due to their nature, they are non-verbal modes of discourse. In 46% of societies kissing functions as a non-verbal language, a motion of love; yet, creates a reaction of disgust in others. When in 1890 South African Thongs saw Europeans kissing for the first time they found it unclean and unpleasant (Jankowiak, Volsche, & Garcia, 2015). Furthermore, the increased presence of differing classes in society, or “Distinction” (Bourdieu, 1984), the heightened omnipresence of this “habitus” (Bourdieu, Outline of A Theory of Practice, 1977). Feelings are culturally encoded (Geertz, 1973), and kissing cannot be said to be a ubiquitous motion of emotion.

Not only is this bodily activity a social fact, also the side on which it is performed is culture-specific. While our “ethnocentric” ways have brought some to speculate that right-head turning bias when kissing is innate, the opposite is noticed in Middle-Eastern cultures. Cultural spatial habits, as reading direction, direct head-turning biases. Left-side kissers are found in countries with right-to-left habits, while right-side kissers are those who read left-to-right (Shaki, 2012). But what does all of this “culture-talk” entail? Is kissing purely based on nurture? Nope. Nature vs. Nurture can be viewed as a “false dichotomy”: we are both constantly adapting to the environment inhabited, and reacting to it with innate traits shaped by natural selection. Kissing is a culturally specific adaptation: it is learnt and then becomes ritualized as part of romantic and sexual foreplay (Jankowiak, Volsche, & Garcia, 2015). It is selected for given its partner-assessment use, and beneficial hormone-release.

 

Lastly, reason is not neglected in favour of emotion when kissing, rather one feels an in-between-ness, affect. In this movement the body has the capacity to affect, and is affected upon; to move and be moved. It is caught between the conscious and the unconscious (Gregg & Seigworth, 2010). Kissing comes with a liminal feeling. Affect might be the biggest challenger of the Platonic-Cartesian Dualism, the notion that mind and body are separated. Reason is said to rest within our mind, while the body is the locus of irrationality and feeling; a survival of our animal past. Christianity has bolstered the Cartesian model, due to its disdain of the body and its sinful desires (Farnell, 2003). Interestingly, the romantic-kiss epitomises the mixing of reason and emotion, affect, yet first appeared in popular culture through early Christians. The greeting “kiss of peace” entailed the exchange of the soul through the breath and was first performed as a cheek kiss, due to the lips’ sexual implications. Nonetheless around the 11^th century the lip-kiss started appearing in legends and stories. In these early popular writing such was portrayed as an act of true love, compared to arranged marriage. A new poetic tradition emerged, “courtly love”, and centred on the kiss’ power to make people fall in love (Danesi, 2013). Despite Christianity’s separation of body and mind, such cannot be distanced, as showed by the gesture created by this same religion. Kissing creates a state of liminality between body and mind, conscious and unconscious. BOdy + miND= BOND.

Bibliography

Blacking, J. (1983). Movement and Meaning: Dance in Social Anthropological Perspective. Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance ResearchVol.

Body Ecology: The Way to Be. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2017, from http://bodyecology.com/articles/this-bliss-hormone-can-heal-your-body-the-many-benefits-of-oxytocin

Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Harvard University Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of A Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press.

Danesi, M. (2013). The History of the Kiss! The Birth of Popular Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Dunbar, R., & Wlodarski, R. (2014). What’s in a kiss? The effect of romantic kissing on mating desirability. Evolutionary Psychology .

Eibl-Eibesfelt, I. (1972). Love and Hate: The Natural History of Bahevior Patters. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston.

Farnell, B. (2003). Kinesthetic Sense and Dynamically Embodied Action. Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement .

Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. U.S.A.: BasicBooks.

Gregg, M., & Seigworth, G. J. (2010). The Affect Theory Reader. London: Duke University Press.

Hughes, S. M., Harrison, M. A., & Gallup, G. G. (2007). Sex differences in romantic kissing among college students: An evolutionary perspective. Evolutionary Psychology.

Hughes, S. M., Harrison, M. A., & Gordon, G. G. (2007). Sex Differences Among College Students: An Evolutionary Perspective. Evolutionary Psychology .

Jankowiak, W. R., Volsche, S. L., & Garcia, J. (2015). Is the Romantic-Sexual Kiss a Near Human Universal. American Anthropologist .

Malinowski, B. (2005). The Sexual Life of Savages in North Western Melanesia. Kessinger Publishing.

Mauss, M. (1973). Techniques of The Body. Economy and Society .

Shaki, S. (2012). What’s in a Kiss? Spatial Experience Shapes Directional Bias During Kissing. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior .

Trivers, R. L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell, Sexual selection and the descent of man,. Chicago: Aldine.