Anthropologists are observers of others and of themselves. The latter is a necessary condition for a healthy dose of self mockery and for a sense of perspective. These two properties are amply available in the person of Ad Borsboom. It would be tempting to present a specimen of his idiosyncratic sense of humour, but I am afraid that his jocular style is too refined to be committed to paper properly. Empathy, a further indispensable quality for a good anthropologist, is another of Ad's prominent attributes. It is only fair to say that this admirable trait must have cost Ad tremendous amounts of time, as, precisely because of his empathic powers, he was an intermediary par excellence. Difficult jobs almost naturally landed on his desk. I will not mention all the affairs he was requested to solve; it suffices to confess that we were clever enough to use (some might say ‘abuse’) his ‘I cannot be blamed for this’-face on a number of occasions. The working title of this Liber Amicorum has been ‘Teaching and Learning in Unknown Cultures’. A period of administrative duties as a vice-dean must at least have embodied a bit of ‘learning in strange cultures’ for Ad, just as my deanship contained a strong component of learning in strange cultures for me.

In my first round of ‘functioning discourses’ with the faculty's full professors, I tried to unite the members of the societal sciences (Sociology, Anthropology and Developmental Studies, Communication Science) under what I thought was their common denominator: Sociology. Although Ad has always championed his field of cultural anthropology very ardently, I received a fair share of support from him for my endeavour. Unfortunately, my attempts were not very fruitful. It was clear from discussions I had with Ad and with one of his PhD students (who later became an important person at the Faculty Bureau) that, although they could agree with my statement with respect to general theories, they added some important insights: sociologists observe global entities or systems, whereas anthropologists not only observe groups but also the behaviour of individuals, and as such would probably have more in common with psychologists.