Reducing it to pure materialism is to miss something important, which is where the alt-right goes wrong, but to ignore biology and material conditions completely is also a mistake. Religion is an important component, but even there religious expression takes different forms among the peoples practicing it. Italian Catholicism looks different from German Catholicism, and South American Catholicism could be mistaken for something entirely different. There is a spirit of a people that can't be easily described or quantified, but is quickly recognized.