In the natural sciences, it is possible for two alternative examples to coexist for the explanation of the same phenomenon; however, it is believed that eventually, appropriate instruments will be invented and relevant evidence will be presented so that a final choice can be made.
But in social and ethical issues, the situation is not so easily decidable, unlike the examples that some armchair philosophers have in mind where everything appears clear and transparent, and the decisive indication is presented optimistically from their hands.
Can we really transform into logically verifiable form what an average Roman Catholic believes about the "immaculate conception" of Mary or what a Trobriand indigenous person thinks about the male contribution to conception? Or what a doctor in the Rochester hospital means when he says that a treatment was a "miracle"?
Given this, I will try to exemplify the types of comparative and translational problems that anthropologists who have a realistic appreciation of the differentiation of cultures and societies are likely to face.
