In this book, D. Z. Zhong establishes a methodological principle for cross-cultural research, called anthropological fideism. While anthropologists take for granted that natives don"t really believe the unintelligible or inexplicable things they say, and what they say should express a deeper social meaning, Zhong contends that if we have a translation manual that can interpret a foreign language, and if natives are asserting honestly, then what natives say still express natives" belief, no matter how absurd it seems.