Kenneth Burke's concepts of rhetoric, dramatism, terministic screens (perceptual filters), and identification are used in this paper to justify and direct intercultural communication research. Three intercultural methodologies--cultural variable analysis, componential analysis, and ethnomethodology--are examined in the paper using these concepts. The paper suggests that Burke's dramatistic perspective relegates cultural variable analysis and componential analysis to the status of inferior research methodologies when compared with ethnomethodology. The paper concludes that intercultural communication researchers using sociological methods may improve the validity of their interpretations by recognizing the effects of their terministic screens and may use the recognition of differences to construct bonds that identify commonalities and eliminate differences. (FL)