Ethnology has recently evolved from a niche subject into an interdisciplinary foundational science, whose methods are applied in many fields. At the same time, there is increasingly less clarity about its central questions and core competencies. Against this backdrop, Hans Peter Hahn not only introduces fundamental concepts and academic traditions of ethnology in a pedagogically sound manner but also addresses selected questions that are particularly significant for a contemporary ethnology. The differences from other disciplines are just as important as the foundations that ethnologists share with other social and cultural scientists.