That's sad

I dated an Indian guy once whose parents had been married as children and were mostly just "roommates" growing up so he really had no idea what to expect in intimate relationships with the opposite sex. I know cultural relativism is supposed to excuse all this stuff, but there seems to be a lot of mean-spiritedness built into these traditions. Not that we don't have them in the US but dowries? Really? My folks didn't even have wedding rings. And how some cultures treat female children like burdens or chattel disgusts me.