What made the Greeks the type of thinkers they are? Why, throughout history, is there so much evidence that a great many Italians are artists? Why are Kenyans notably fast runners? Why are Asians able to produce things in near-perfect miniature? Why are the Scots frugal and fierce? I was just positing that the environment into which a population is born is a contributory factor of the resulting culture.
I’ll agreet that environment certainly can shape culture to some degree, but the effect is marginal. If environment had the force greater than ideas, then those countries would still be turning out great painters, thinker and the like. The bigger cause, IMO, is orientation to truth. Paganism in, barbarism out.