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Whole families (sometimes several families) would live in a room or two -- the people had little more modesty or opportunities for privacy than barnyard animals (who often also lived in the same room). In large parts of the world (maybe a majority of the world) most people still live this way today. Exposed breasts are common. Modesty was only an option for very few in the upper class.

I think you are confusing privacy and modesty. An African/South Pacific/South American girl whose culture and local weather conditions dictate that she should walk around bare-breasted can be just as chaste and modest as a girl who is being brought up in a Spanish convent or an Apostolic church. The African girl is not flaunting herself for sexual purposes and is not about to leap into bed with anyone she's not married to. And the African man next to her is so used to seeing it as a basic part of his culture that he doesn't consider it a big thrill or even a sexual signal.

When we are speaking about modesty in the context of American co-eds, we're talking about gross sexual self-advertisement, a lack of self-control, and promiscuous sexual behavior, not how many family members are forced to sleep in the same room.