It is for the last time that the lecture “Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology” in the BA program “Social and Cultural Anthropology” at the University of Vienna will be held. 11 years ago, the late Elke Mader and Wolfgang Kraus conceived and organized this lecture for the first time.

This winter term, I have the pleasure to give this lecture one last time – again with contributions by Wolfgang Kraus – before a new curriculum and introduction lecture will be implemented.

The lecture has been using Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s seminal book Small Places, Large Issues as main teaching and learning resource. I find it therefore fitting to end this journey with a quote from his volume:

“Anthropology tries to account for the social and cultural variation in the world, but a crucial part of the anthropological project also consists in conceptualising and understanding similarities between social systems and human relationships.” (Eriksen, 2015: 2)