 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Eskimo kiss" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
AnEskimo kiss,nose kiss, ornose rub is a gesture of affection where one rubs the tip of one's nose against another person's face. InInuit culture, the gesture is known as akunik, and consists of pressing or rubbing the tip of one's nose against another's cheek.[1] In non-Inuit English-speaking culture, two people Eskimo kiss by rubbing the tips of their noses together. Nose-to-cheek kisses are found in other cultures as well.
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(July 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
When early Western explorers of theArctic first witnessed Inuit nose rubbing as a greeting behavior, they dubbed itEskimo kissing.[a] The practice was also prevalent in nearby non-Inuit cultures.
Among the Inuit,kunik is a form of expressing affection,[1] usually between family members and loved ones or to young children,[3] that involves pressing the nose and upper lip against the skin (commonly of the cheeks or forehead) and breathing in, causing the loved one's skin or hair to be suctioned against the nose and upper lip.[4] A common misconception is that the practice arose so that Inuit could kiss without their mouths freezing together. 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.[citation needed]
The greeting was described in reports ofKerlungner and Wearner, part of a group ofAlaskan Native people touring the United States with entrepreneur Miner W. Bruce in the 1890s: "Mr. Bruce yesterday instructed Kerlungner and Wearner that in this country they should not rub noses, and to close the lesson the two young women kissed each other in the new style for a beginning, both seeming to fear that they looked silly as they did it."[5]
_(page_328_crop).jpg)
Other peoples use similar greeting practices, notably theMāori of New Zealand andHawaiians, who practice thehongi andhoni greetings, respectively. Mongolian nomads of theGobi Desert have a similar practice, as do certainSoutheast Asian cultures, such as theBengalis,Khmer people,Lao people,Thai people,Vietnamese people,Timor,Savu people,Sumba people[6] andIban people. Nose kissing is also employed as a traditional greeting by Arabs in a number of regions in the Gulf countries and Yemen.[7]
