ABSTRACT
This chapter sketches the transformations of love until the nineteenth century, to explain how love came to be central to society and social organisation, how love became not just a, but the, predominant second-order form. In societies of faithfulness, 'marriage' is not the verification and institutionalisation of a bond of love but 'the primary vehicle for transmitting status and property. As a consequence, in societies of faithfulness, both men and women face greater restrictions on their behaviour. Love conflicted deeply with the typical hierarchic patriarchal model of societies of faithfulness. It reappeared for the first time as a meaningful factor within society. That love turned into the predominant second-order form is no accident but a result of historical transformations that affected the very structure of society's possibility. The chapter explains how second-order forms are based on a very specific relation with time and durability, and that specific second-order form rituals and myths play a relevant role in their establishment.
