Official Chinese history has always been written from a centristviewpoint. Chieftains into Ancestors describes theintersection of imperial administration and chieftain-dominated localculture in the culturally diverse southwestern region of China.Contemplating the rhetorical question of how one can begin to rewritethe story of a conquered people whose past was never transcribed in thefirst place, the authors combine anthropological fieldwork withhistorical textual analysis to build a new regionalhistory - one that recognizes the ethnic, religious, andgendered transformations that took place in China'snation-building process.