ABSTRACT
Modern thought treats nature as separate from culture and has assigned ontological priority to the former. Among Kubo, curing ceremonies, intercommunity prestations, initiations and the completion of new longhouses may be all marked by dancing. The focal referent of 'geography' is the landscape itself. But spiritual beings may be often manifest in the material world. The geography of the Kubo landscape is not characterized by strong gradients of use value or spiritual association. The visible and invisible worlds are co-extensive. Etolo food-producing activities display strong gradients in both space and time. Most of the land used by and known to Siane people of the highlands is anthropogenic. Western thought has mistaken the periphery for the primal. To a large extent the conservation movement has compounded the error by sanctifying the perceived primal. The methodology of ecological science asserts a separation of environment and organism.
