Now, however, we encounter the striking fact that in many primitive cultures, prostitution is not considered humiliating, nor does it lead to outcaste status. Similarly, in Asian antiquity, girls of all classes prostituted themselves to contribute to the temple treasury or to acquire a dowry, the latter also being the case among some African tribes. The girls, who often include the sovereign’s daughter, do not lose their reputation, nor is their later married life in any way compromised. This opinion, so different from our own, indicates that the two factors—women’s sexual honor and money—are related in a basically different way than they are among us. Among us prostitution is characterized by the unbridgeable gap between these two elements; where a totally different view of prostitution is held, these two elements must be closer together in value.

XREF: Contrasts sharply with modern Western views where prostitution and reputation are seen as fundamentally opposed — simmel's comparative economics of honor. QUESTION: What social conditions made temple prostitution compatible with honor while modern contexts treat them as mutually exclusive?

XREF: Connects to the historical replacement of wergeld by modern criminal law, where human life became priceless rather than priceable.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 370