ABSTRACT
It is generally acknowledged that the way societies give shapeto their environments by transforming them materially is, toa large extent, the product of cultural preconceptions. Reconsidering this particular aspect of the dichotomy between ‘material culture’ and ‘symbolism’, the purpose of this article is to examine the validity of the converse proposition, i.e., the process by which a specific shaping of the environment impacts on the way this environment is culturally constructed. I argue that, in the particular case of the Hani society in Yunnan, the cosmological conceptualization of the local environment is grounded in a practical experience of wet rice agriculture and irrigation management. The principles on which the irrigation system is based provide a conceptual framework facilitating various analogical transfers from which each village community constructs a religious interpretation of the surrounding landscape.
