Kneeling
human position where one or both knees touch the ground
Kneeling is a basic human position where one or both knees touch the ground. According to Merriam-Webster, kneeling is defined as "to position the body so that one or both knees rest on the floor". Kneeling with only one knee, and not both, is called genuflection.
Kneeling is a primate behavior used to convey deference by making the figure that is kneeling appear smaller than the other. Primates themselves establish a dominance hierarchy (or "pecking order") which is important to the survival and behavior of the group. Chimpanzees, for example, have a complex social group that involves a dominant male and a corresponding female, to whom the other males and the juvenile chimps are submissive. Males who threaten the hierarchy are often severely injured or killed; in some instances, the use of submissive behavior is necessary to ensure survival.
Religion
Humans have inherited the custom of entering a submissive frame of mind, and kneeling has become prevalent in religious practices. It has been used as a form of prayer and a way to worship God or revere deities and supernatural entities. Kneeling has taken on many different forms and styles as different cultures and institutions have adopted it.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8866546. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kneeling” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.