The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology began its work in 1999 and moved into its permanent building on Advokatenweg 36 in Halle/Saale in late 2001. Through multiple investigations of changing norms and values, living conditions and conflicts in postcolonial and postsocialist settings, researchers analyse thematic fields that often stand in the limelight of political discussion, such as: ethnicity and identities, conflict management, religion and civil society, different legal approaches to natural resource management, transnational migrants and their incorporation, and the changing significance of the state versus the family as systems of social security.
The main theme of the Institute’s research programme can thus be summarised as the comparative analysis of contemporary social change, which also characterises the Institute’s contributions to anthropological theory building. Fieldwork is an essential part of almost all research projects as it facilitates close-up observation of processes at work in different societies.
More than 100 researchers from various countries work at the Institute. The Institute is divided into the following research areas: Department I "Integration and Conflict" (G. Schlee), Department II (C. Hann), Project Group Legal Pluralism (F. and K. von Benda-Beckmann), the Siberian Studies Centre (C. Hann and G. Schlee) and the Max Planck Fellow Group LOST (R. Rottenburg). The Institute’s Library, the Research Coordination Unit, the IT Department and administrative staff assist the researchers in their work. The Institute has its own guesthouse for visiting researchers, and organises regular seminars and conferences of international academic importance.
The presence of two universities with anthropological departments in the vicinity offers excellent potential for scientific cooperation:
Seminar for Social Anthropology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Leipzig
Centre for Interdisciplinary Area Studies, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg