[SoothingDave]

Is there any reason to suppose the examples you cited were any different in that regard?

Yes. It helps if you can imagine life without a welfare state. A life where arranged marriages were arranged for various reasons, and often included a fair amount of haggling.

Then, hard as it may be, imagine a life in a society that is not completely sexualised, as out is.

SD

[newgeezer]

Thanks to one of you for the lucid answer. ;-)

Oh, and if you really believe our society is completely sexualized, you're dreaming. Thirty years from now, they'll laugh at today's seemingly prudish, Puritan ethics.