Perhaps peoples more distant from the Equator experiencing more pronounced seasons found it necessary to develop calendars and other innovations whereas more temperateclimates required less precision.
In more temperateclimates, you could make the 380-mile trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles with just a single leisurely lunch at Harris Ranch and arrive with enough power leftover to make it out to dinner.
True, it is more difficult to operate in hot climates than in temperate ones, and disease and pestilence do nothing for labour productivity, but these are hardly spellbinding insights.