“The Nalu are recent converts to Islam (Silva 1956; Carreira 1961; Frazão-Moreira 2009), and a pre-Islamic cosmology exists in a syncretic form according to which supernatural beings (genies, or 'irans' as they are called in Guinea-Bissau protect people and the territory. Places where these beings live are considered sacred and, as such, they are preserved as taboo objects and ritual places. In general, natural beings, whether animals or plants, are seen as elements of the world at the same level as humans in a holistic and systemic vision of the universe. This pre-Islamic Nalu cosmology is thus another illustration of what many authors, such as Stathern (1995 [1980]) or Ingold (1996, 2000), have been arguing when they say that non-Western views cannot be adapted to a naturalist eye influenced by an anthropocentric viewpoint and the opposition between culture and nature.”

- Amelia Frazão-Moreira, “Ethnobiological research and the ethnographic challenges in the 'ecological era'”. IN: Etnográfica, outubro de 2015, 19 (3): 605-624.