What determines the nature of an individual’s relations with his surrounding people?

As with everything; follow the arrow of causality!

environment =>governs the availability of energy, resources and goods, services => influences the direction of education-derived value system => influences the economic policies followed by people => serves as the basis of all social interaction

But the flow of inter-dependence as before, is from everything to everything. [ As much as the availability of energy governs the nature of values, the same values can also orient the economics for altering the environment to bring about a change in the energy patterns. ]