Old-time religion (and I mean old time)

One idea that I never heard growing up (because I didn't read enough Catholic authors from before the 60s) is the idea of "primeval tradition."  It was a little startling to realize that some authors seemed even to take for granted the idea that there are some things that have been the common intellectual property of mankind since Adam and Eve; not instinct but knowledge - a tradition, if you will, passed down (albeit not by an appointed succession but in the things "everyone" knows) from the generation that actually remembered the Garden.

I don't really think about this enough to go around looking for examples of what this would be, but something occurred to me when I was reading some academic-type papers about ancient Greece and Rome.  No matter what culture people are talking about, no matter what time period, people who are in favor of certain moral standards such as, say, more modest dress, are *always* considered to be "old-fashioned moralists."  Maybe if this is just a projection backwards by modern people someone who really knows these things will correct me, but it seemed that even in these ancient pagan cultures, advocating more sexual license was new and modern, while advocating less was old-fashioned.

Think about it - even if the more strict people are actually reformers, they are always considered a conservative reaction.  You never hear about the progressive, forward-thinking people who breaking new ground in modesty or decency or whatever, do you?

Again, I'm not claiming that this is incontrovertible evidence of anything; just an anecdote.  I'd be interested to hear if you have an argument either corroborating this or explaining it away as an artifact of modern habits of thinking.