Maybe the fact that they were used by seemingly very different society for thousand of years and society who did enforce them were more stable and successful? The hubris of modern people to think they are so enlightened they can engineer society to fit they ideological views as if humans were mere economical units.
> seemingly very different society for thousand of years and society who did enforce them were more stable and successful
Ahh, so a bias for values that were evolutionarily successful? I can kind of see the utility there.
Would this hypothetical system take into account the dominance of the societies in question, or is it just specifically how long they've survived/been stable?
Is there a reason to assume the traditional measures are, in fact, the correct ones to be using?