Fieldwork Pictures

The preparation and communal drinking of tea is a social ritual in Niger in western Africa. This teapot belongs to a Fulɓe herdsman and originated in Czechoslovakia. The decorations were added by a Tuareg silversmith and the tea is imported from China. ■ Photo: Florian Köhler, Ganatcha, Niger, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

A young Akha woman catches fish in a river in south-western Yunnan province, China. She is 18 and has a one-year-old son. She loves dancing, but since her marriage she is no longer able to pursue this hobby so often. ■ Photo: Ruijing Wang, Menglian, China, 2012 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

A pūjeca tāṭ. The contents of this plate – incense sticks, marigold flowers, an oil lamp, sugar, gulal, kumkum, turmeric powder, and rice – are used during ritualistic ceremonies to worship a deity. ■ Photo: Kalindi Kokal, Paaj Pandhari, Maharashtra, India, 2015 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

A pirogue being used to transport another pirogue. These flat boats are the only suitable means for travel and shipment of goods in the inaccessible island landscape of Nigerien Lake Chad. ■ Photo: Florian Köhler, Lake Chad near Bosso, Niger, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The rubob, the tambur, and the daf are traditional handmade musical instruments of the Pamir Mountain region. Together with a traditional felted rug, these instruments were part of an exhibition of folk culture in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. ■ Photo: Małgorzata Biczyk, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Donation boxes in Soon U Ponya Shin Pagoda, Sagaing, with the Pagoda’s main Buddha statue in the background. Sagaing is the religious centre of Myanmar. It hosts thousands of monks and nuns who study and meditate in the countless Buddhist monasteries. The Pagodas of Sagaing also attract many pilgrims and foreign visitors. ■ Photo: Laura Hornig, Sagaing, Myanmar, 2016 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Twice a year Kanchi’in, a Tokyo temple, organises a 24-hour chanting event, Fudan Nenbutsu. In spring the event takes place in Tokyo, in autumn in Kyoto. At night, paper votive lanterns offered by participants are lit up in front of the temple building. At the end of the event, the leading priest will read out the wishes written on the lanterns in the name of those who offered them. ■ Photo: Beata Switek, Kyoto, Japan, 2016 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The geerewol dance is performed during a Woɗaaɓe inter-clan ceremony. Central to these ceremonies is the ritual affirmation of a culture-specific practice of marriage by elopement of already married women with men from other clans. Although the practice is the cause of many conflicts, it is – through the resulting bonds across clans – also the social glue that ties the mobile and spatially dispersed clans together. ■ Photo: Florian Köhler, Abdenaser, Damergou Region, Niger, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Nyonya beaded shoes and slippers are part of the material culture of the Baba Nyonya or Strait Chinese, who are unique to the former British Straits Settlements Penang, Melaka, and Singapore. Beading shoes was one of the handicrafts a young girl had to learn before marriage. Today, there are only a handful of craftsmen and -women left who make these customised shoes. ■ Photo: Mareike Pampus, George Town (Penang), Malaysia, 2015 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

A puchiāri presents her analysis of the rice grains placed before her by a family. Puchiāri-s are consulted to know whether misfortunes being faced by the family are the result of an intervention by spirits or deities. In the majority of the cases deities are called upon by disputing parties for suitable processing of their disputes. ■ Photo: Kalindi Kokal, Saukuda village, Uttarakhand, India, 2016 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Buddhism plays a big role in the religious landscape of Sikkim, where such prayer flags are a common sight. These monochromatic flags are inscribed with prayers, mantras, or symbols. The colours represent the elements – fire, water, earth, air, space – of the physical body and environment. It is believed that the wind activates and carries the spiritual vibrations from the flags to the surrounding area. ■ Photo: Sudeshna Chaki, Khecheopalri Lake, Sikkim, India, 2014 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Since 2012, Penang’s Street Art is one of the main attractions for young tourists in George Town. The figures in the image invite visitors to become part of the art. Heeding this call, two backpackers, Erfino from Indonesia and Tony from California, add themselves to the picture. ■ Photo: Mareike Pampus, George Town, Penang, Malaysia, 2015 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Adapting to the resource scarcity of the northern Sahel region, the Woɗaaɓe of Niger – who even today are still mostly highly mobile cattle-herding pastoralists – spend most of the year living in small and widely scattered groups. The large annual clan gatherings are an occasion for dance competitions as well as reinforcing social relationships and renewing friendships. ■ Photo: Florian Köhler, Abdenaser, Damergou region, Niger, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Only a few kilometres outside the capital of Karakalpakistan, along the “salt flats” just past the airport is a racetrack. In past decades, festivals such as Navruz, the New Year, were celebrated here and horse races and tournaments were held. Today the site is used mainly for driving practice and the buildings are falling into ruin. ■ Photo: Margarethe Waldt, Nukus, Karakalpakistan, 2016 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Fishermen on Lake Chad. In the labyrinth-like network of islands along the Lake Chad shores, fish traps are set up along the shallow waterways and emptied at regular intervals. ■ Photo: Florian Köhler, Lake Chad, near Bosso, Niger, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

During a state parade in Viengxay young women wear traditional Laotian wrap skirts with elaborate embroidery that displays their individual artistic taste and emphasizes their ethnic identity. Expressions of ethnic difference in Laos are largely limited to textile art and other traditional crafts. ■ Photo: Oliver Tappe, Viengxay, Laos, 2010 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

A typical arrangement of vessels in a kitchen. Koḷī households have several stainless steel and aluminium vessels used for cooking and serving. In the kitchens, most of the surplus utensils are stored in this aesthetically arranged manner. The Koḷī community is a caste group in India that traditionally practice fishing as their primary occupation. ■ Photo: Kalindi Kokal, Paaj Pandhari, Maharashtra, India, 2015 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Coke oven operator. Arcelor Mittal Steel Plant in Temirtau, Kazakhstan. ■ Photo: Tommaso Trevisani, Temirtau, Kazakhstan, 2013 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The traditional everyday costume of the Flower Hmong women in the north-western Highlands of Vietnam includes a colourful blouse decorated with embroidered ribbons and beaded fringes. In the past these garments were decorated by hand for personal use – a process requiring months of work. Today it is also possible to purchase mass-produced items manufactured in China. ■ Photo: Kirsten Endres, Provinz Lao Cai, Vietnam, 2010 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

A woman decorates a traditional bamboo parasol in Pathein, Myanmar. The city is famous throughout the country for its parasols, which have been produced here by hand for generations. ■ Foto: Laura Hornig, Pathein, Myanmar, 2016 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

State celebrations of Navruz, the Persian New Year. The central ceremony was held at the hippodrome in the presence of the Tajik president. Local university students stand in front of images of traditional suzanies, embroidered fabrics with patterns characteristic of different regions. ■ Photo: Małgorzata Biczyk, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The Arcelor Mittal Steel Plant in Temirtau was known as the Karaganda Metallurgical Combine (KARMET) during the Soviet period. In 2013 it produced 2.96 million tons of steel and had 14,929 employees. In 1996, a year after privatization, production was 3.13 million tons with 29,894 employees. ■ Photo: Tommaso Trevisani, Temirtau, Kazakhstan, 2014 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Accra, Ghana, 2011. ■ Photo: Jacqueline Knörr, Research Group ‘Integration and Conflict along the Upper Guinea Coast (West Africa)’, Accra, Ghana, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Currently located in a fishing boat, this compass was previously used in sail boats called vāhan in the Gujarāti language. Such boats were employed in local and medium distance coastal trade along the shores of Western India until 2011. ■ Photo: Varsha Patel, Port village of Goghā, Gulf of Khambhat, Gujarāt, India, 2015 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Sugar paste sculpting requires nimble hands and an eye for detail. Sitting on the square outside Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Hanoi, an old man earns a small income from selling Santa Claus figurines during the Christmas season. ■ Photo: Kirsten Endres, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2010 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

On Women’s Day, 8 March 2013, the well-dressed Akha women took one day off work and enjoyed their holiday. They visited the sugar factory, a mansion of the late Dai chieftain and went trekking in a park located on the outskirt of the town. All costs of food, drink, and transportation were covered by the local government. In the park, they climbed up the rock and asked me to take the photo. ■ Photo: Ruijing Wang, Menglian, China, 2013 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Women carry firewood, a resource that is difficult to obtain in the Pamir Mountains. People have to walk long distances in order to gather a small bundle of wood or dung for heating. ■ Photo: Małgorzata Biczyk, Badakhshan province, Afghanistan, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Boat building in Jāffarābād, a port town along the Saurāshtrā coast of Gujarāt, India. One summer morning in March 2015 during the boat building season. The Saurāshtrā coastline along the Arabian Sea has a long tradition of building wooden boats. ■ Photo: Varsha Patel, Jāffarābād, Gujarāt, India, 2015 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Nuba Moro Christian women reading from the Moro New Testament along with the preacher during the monthly “Women’s Day” in Church. Literacy in Moro is a gendered strategy for social ascension within Moro society as well as a tool of opposition in an Arab-Islamic state. ■ Photo: Siri Lamoureaux, Khartoum, Sudan, 2012 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Motorbikes and scooters are an important means of transport and mobility in contemporary Vietnam. This wall painting in the old quarter of Hanoi may seem a bit exaggerated, but it is in fact not all too far from the reality of everyday street life. The only exception: so far children below the age of six have not been required by law to wear a helmet. ■ Photo: Kirsten Endres, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2013 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

In Ghana many people face the challenge of trying to make optimal use of scant money and resources. Here in the capital Accra, a business centre has been erected using various scraps of building material. Such venues offer not only everyday goods and services, they are also used to advertise events or express the convictions of the shopkeeper. ■ Photo: Jacqueline Knörr, Accra, Ghana, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

This bowl of chopsticks placed on a distribution box after lunch time shows the blurring boundaries between the public and private sphere in Hanoi: Eating on the streets is a distinct feature of everyday life in Vietnam’s capital and Hanoians are willing to drive long distances just to eat at their favourite food stall. ■ Photo: Lisa Barthelmes, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2012 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The region Dzūkija is known for its mushroom-rich forests. These sweet mushrooms are a culinary specialty prepared by a woman from the region. ■ Photo: Lina Pranaitytė-Wergin, Dzūkija region, Lithuania, 2008 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The many rivers in the mountainous north of Laos are important for the livelihoods of the heterogeneous population. Lao, Tai Dam, Tai Daeng, Khmu and many other ethnic groups use those rivers for fishing and to irrigate their small rice fields next to the river banks. ■ Photo: Oliver Tappe, Sam Tai District, Lao PDR, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The children of Khorog prepare a theatrical event for the celebration of Idi Nur – the Holiday of Light, a commemoration of Aga Khan IV’s first visit to the region. They decided impulsively to surprise their elders. They dressed up and invited the entire neighbourhood to join in recitations of religious texts, singing, reciting poems in English, and dancing to traditional and disco music. ■ Photo: Małgorzata Biczyk, Khorog, Tajikistan, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Mr. Manh doesn’t require much space or equipment for his work as a barber. Most of the time all he needs is the electric clipper to give his clients a new haircut. After all, he isn’t a hair stylist, just a simple street barber – his “salon” is located on the outer wall of a large market building. ■ Kirsten Endres, Lao Cai City, Vietnam, 2012 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The Buduma, who inhabit the coastal region and the islands of Lake Chad, are pastoralists, maize farmers, and fishers. Depending on how high the water level is, the herders sometimes have to swim with their cattle to pasture on one of the islands. ■ Photo: Florian Köhler, Lake Chad near Bosso, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Ms Hoa, 68, is a retired labour migrant who lives with her husband in a village in the Nam Dinh Province of Vietnam. She is very affectionate with the silkworms: “If you care for them, they will do well. It is very sweet!” ■ Photo: Minh Nguyen, Nam Dinh Province, Vietnam, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Lunch break with a friend. Every workshop in the coal-preparation plant has its own resident animal. Murr has called this boiler room home for 14 years. ■ Eeva Kesküla, Karaganda Oblast, Kazakhstan, 2013 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

In celebration of the translation of the Old Testament’s “Book of Nehemiah” into the Moro language, Nuba Moro Church leaders of representative denominations and clans bless the just-published text. The image illustrates how the social organisation of the Moro ethnic group is transformed into Church hierarchies. ■ Photo: Siri Lamoureaux, Khartoum, Sudan, 2012 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Although one of the most important transport routes in Sudan, this highway is only single-lane. Speeding, poor safety regulations and lack of infrastructure development contribute to many fatal road accidents. ■ Photo: Timm Sureau, Sudan, 2010 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Bulgarians are one of the many ethnic minorities living in Ukraine’s Black Sea region. Folklore groups from across southwestern Ukraine meet for the “Day of Bulgarian Culture”. ■ Photo: Simon Schlegel, Odessa, Ukraine, 2013 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Turkana nomads are masters at finding subsistence in a harsh natural environment, but a century of modernization policies and the population explosion have driven the majority of them to adopt a settled lifestyle in which they must rely on state funds. They have schools, practice Christian religion, and raise poultry to supplement their diet. This proud rooster was given the honour of being sacrificed for the celebration of a newly-adopted festival, Christmas. ■ Photo: Immo Eulenberger, Kenya, 2013 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The lift operator greets miners, who have worked their 6 hours shift underground and are taking the lift up from 1000 meters below. They will wash off the coal dust, but it will not come off from around their eyes. So everyone in the town knows that the men who seem to have kohl eyeliner around their eyes have spent their shift doing hard work. ■ Photo: Eeva Kesküla, Karaganda Oblast, Kazakhstan, 2014 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Empty rows of seats in the state hippodrome in Dushanbe after the central Navruz festivities. Navruz is the Persian New Year celebrated on 21 March. ■ Photo: Małgorzata Biczyk, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Rappers on Nile Street in Khartoum after a long evening of performing rap to the beat provided by a mobile phone. Personal experiences and opinions are expressed in their rap music. ■ Photo: Timm Sureau, Khartoum, Sudan, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Kon Klor suspension bridge is located in the Bahnar village of Kon Klor, southeast of Kon Tum’s city centre in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The bridge spans the Dak Bla River, which, unlike other rivers in Vietnam, flows from east to west. Since its construction in 1993, the bridge provides a much used connection between the region’s rural villages and the sprawling urban area of the provincial capital. ■ Photo: Kirsten Endres, Central Highlands, Vietnam, 2016 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Woman picking cotton in a field near the Maqtaly village. The name of the village Maqtaly in Kazak means ‘Cottony’. This is a seasonal work and many otherwise unemployed villagers earn money by picking cotton from mid-September to the end of November. ■ Photo: Indira Alibayeva, Maqtaly, Kazakhstan, 2014 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

These buckets aren’t part of an art object, but rather fire extinguishing equipment at the entrance of an expensive safari camp in northern Kenya. Filled with sand, they require no maintenance or replenishment. Evidently only small fires are anticipated. ■ Harald Müller-Dempf, Lokochokio, Kenia, 2006 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

An Akha woman in her eighties smoking a bamboo pipe. She is a respected and loved grandmother and mother to 11 children. The Akha are highlanders, scattered across the Ailao Mountains between the Mekong River and the Red River, and comprise a total population of 680,000. ■ Photo: Ruijing Wang, Menglian, China, 2012 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Traditional practices of popular Islam are resilient in Central Asia, despite the interventions of secular authorities. At the famous shrine of Imam Jafar Sadiq at Niya in southern Xinjiang, even minor, more recent tombs in the surrounding desert are adorned with the votive rags of pilgrims. ■ Photo: Chris Hann, Minfeng County, People’s Republic of China, 2005 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The January masquerade, originally a rural tradition, is also performed in the industrial town Pernik since the 1960s. While in the rural context this ritual is associated with fertility and a prosperous harvest, in the urban context industrial workers also associate it with luck for the New Year and safe production. ■ Photo: Dimitra Kofti, Pernik, Bulgaria, 2014 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Supply lines being serviced in Kyoto. As in other Japanese cities, transformers and a dense maze of wires are suspended above the streets due to lack of space at ground level. ■ Photo: Christoph Brumann, Kyoto, Japan, 2011 ■ © Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

A Somali owned shop in old town (mji wa kale) Mombasa. Since the early 1990s many Somali migrants, especially from the Somali port cities, have come to Mombasa. As former traders they rented shops, mostly owned by Arab or Asian businesspeople. With the help of the Somali diaspora in the West new houses were built as well, changing the appearance of the historic centre tremendously. ■ Photo: Tabea Scharrer, Mombasa, Kenya, 2011 ■ © Maxa Planck Institute for Social Anthropology