Another cliche no body talks about when commenting on different countries and their culture is plain and simple geography. Yes we can find similarities with almost any other place in the world, well, maybe not Antarctica.

EX: my guess, nobody would stop to think where Venezuela is located, as in tropical, with some ocean front and lots of jungle possibly? It's almost like the last item to consider when wondering about geographic locations around the globe.

Yet geography can really push a culture into some strange contortions. Deciphering cultural differences might be easier if first approached by a geographic awareness. Of course there is much else to consider socially and linguistically, etc. to help us decode earth's human civilizations.