Understanding the consciousness of a society from the past in Judaism

Hello Rabbi,
I came across an interesting philosophical issue regarding the ability to understand past societies (understanding a foreign society, in the field of historical thinking). In essence – do we have the ability today to understand a society from the past, or does the great diversity of their reality and consciousness make it difficult to the point of incomprehensibility?
One of the most significant studies was conducted on the understanding of primitive society (Evans, Understanding Primitive Society).
In Judaism – I found in the Gemara Sanhedrin Kabba a reference to the story of Rav Ashi and King Menashe, who said to him, "Are you innocent? He was caught by the hem of your robe." It can be understood that he was referring to this issue and remarking to him about the inability to understand the people of Menashe's time. (It can also be explained in a more limited way that Menashe only renewed in him the abolition of the desire to worship idols. But perhaps this is the very problem with understanding a foreign society – one that lives in a different reality and therefore has different consciousnesses than ours.)
Does the Rabbi know of any other sources in Judaism that indicate that the Sages were aware of the difficulty in understanding a foreign society?