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culturally uniform society (a family or patriarchal clan), and the cultural space and the natural bio-region will come to coincide completely, making the society as a whole establish an intimate relationship with the natural environment. This makes it possible for the inhabitants to have an overall understanding of the structure and function of the basin ecosystem. It leads to the early development of an ecological sense as in Chinese culture (Yu 1990a) and development of culturally and ecologically prudent behavior. 2) Basin experience favors the sense of territory and a posterity-oriented ethic. In an isolated enclosed basin, the survival and development of the whole family of clan rely completely upon perceivably scarce resources in the limited basin; every member of the occupant group is brought up hearing the heroic tales told by his parents and grandparents about their ancestors' arduous struggle and merits in pioneering and maintaining and protecting their sacred territory. All these lead to strengthening the sense of territory and give rise to ancestral worship. Ancestral worship particularly means to each member of the clan that: (a) He acts not for himself but as a representative of his worshipped ancestors for the preservation of the "gene" of this family; his most important function is to take the lantern (as a symbol of ancestral worship from his father and pass it on his son); (b) Everything left from the ancestors is sacred and should be kept intact and inherited by the descendants. Thus, a well dug by ancestors, a field opened by ancestors, etc, should be protected and carefully maintained for posterity. 3) Basin experience favors pure and well organized groups. According to Brower (1980), there are four space occupancy types: personal occupancy, community occupancy, occupancy by society and free occupancy. In the situation in a moderate-sized basin, community (family or clan) occupancy is dominant; the whole basin can be claimed by a single family or clan as territory and there is very limited room for outsiders and individuals. Any intruding outsiders will be viewed with suspicion and kept off by making use of and constructing defensive landscapes (Fig. 1). Profligate individuals who dare to misuse the clan-claimed common territory will be severely punished and even removed according to domestic disciplines. That makes sure that the group as a whole can get predictable long-range benefits from its prudent behavior. Fig.1. A well defended village in a small basin (a preliminary survey by the author, in Mt. Xiq iaoshan in Guangdong Province) 1. the entrance gate; 2. a man-made screen hill; 3. the ancestral temple; 4. vegetable plots; 5. cottages; 6. ponds; 4) Basin experience induces an endogenous and self-reliant economy. Thanks to the isolation and enclosure of basin, the economic behavior of the habitants is need-oriented but not imitative. The purpose of production and resource exploitation is merely daily consumption instead of selling in the markets. The flow of energy, material and information in and out of the basin is very limited, so that the economic behavior of human beings is the feedback mechanism of the ecosystem, instead of the social and cultural information control mechanism. This makes the habitant group behave in correspondingly adaptive ways including acting prudently towards the natural environment. 5) Basin experience of partial and frequent calamity. Compared to the situation in a great p