ABSTRACT
This chapter is a narrative division of several histories chosen and dealt with following a pluri- and interdisciplinary approach that will enable to compare specialized discourses and identify certain convergences, divergences and complementarities, contributing, then, to structuring the outline of a general, but irreducibly heterogeneous, picture of the couple. The chapter explores general anthropological facts such as images of marriage, of married couples and of celibacy in traditional societies. Most human societies are protected from primary celibacy -antisocial act par excellence and, at the same time, the very negation of the individual, who is only supposed to attain complete self-fulfillment in and through marriage. The chapter provides a historical look at marriage and the couple in the Western world. It presents the sociological facts of Western contemporary society. Most homosexuals have the experience of stable relationships or relationships as a couple, half of which involve living together, in contrast to heterosexual couples, a higher percentage of which live together.
