Clifford Geertz, an eminent American cultural anthropologist, made seminal contributions to the field of cross-cultural communication research, notably through his conceptualization of culture. He is regarded as the founder of symbolic anthropology and is one of the most influential cultural anthropologists of all time. Most notably, he gained fame through his ethnographic studies in Bali and Java, in which he explored social systems on the basis of symbols (e.g. cockfights). The method of “thick description” introduced by Geertz has since become a cornerstone of qualitative social research, enabling a differentiated understanding and interpretation of cultural phenomena. His work also shaped cultural, ethical, and scientific pluralism in the social sciences. His work The Interpretation of Cultures is considered one of the most significant and most cited works in cross-cultural communication research.