I highly doubt this. Remember, not so long ago, reproduction was considered a solemn duty of virtually everyone who didn't enter the religious life. Life was hard, often short, and children were the functional equivalent of life insurance. In the Middle Ages, for example, virginity past the onset of puberty was extremely rare. (To use one example from literature, it often makes people uncomfortable to realize that Juliet is not quite 14 when the play opens, so our modern productions tend to gloss over that disconcerting fact.)
That's one of the reasons why I find it amusing when people act like teenage sex is some modern tragedy. That's the farthest thing from the truth. Teenage sex has been the norm throughout history. Yes, it was primarily married teen sex, but that is beside the point. It's only been in very recent history -- within the past century -- that widespread abstinence during adolescence even became thinkable, much less mainstream. To think that 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 are virgins these days is just mind boggling.
Obviously, that doesn't mean humans were simply fucking like rabbits all the time. They had to work their asses off and probably came home dog tired, which may have often put a crimp on the lovemaking. Plus there were other circumstances that might lead to temporary periods of abstinence: abstinence after childbirth (or during periods of privation), war campaigns, long hunts, sailing, trading expeditions, exploration and pioneering, etc. But those were the exception, not the rule. The concept of young men sitting around in fantasy worlds instead of leading real-life families and bearing real-world responsibility is recent indeed.
Originally Posted by: Nonstopdrivel