This paper was originally presented in October 1987 as part of a seminar series on concepts of space in Asia held in the Department of Prehistory and Anthropology at The Australian National University. I wish to register my gratitude to Douglas Miles (who organized that series) for persuading me to participate in it. The written version has been read by many people: thanks to, in particular James J. Fox, Barry Hindess, Douglas Miles, Nicholas Thomas and Michael Young for their careful scrutiny and comments. I also wish to thank Michael Jackson for his initial suggestion of several fruitful lines of enquiry which are taken up here. This paper is also published in Oceania 62, 1992 and is reproduced here with permission.