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. The presence of two universities with anthropological departments (the Seminar of Social Anthropology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg as well as the Institute for Social Anthropology, University Leipzig) and other relevant research institutions ( Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Regionalstudien (ZIRS)) in the vicinity offers excellent potential for scientific cooperation.

Through multiple investigations of changing norms and values, living conditions and conflicts in post-colonial 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 transformation, which also characterises the Institute’s contributions to anthropological theory building. Extended fieldwork is an essential part of 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 Socialist and Postsocialist Eurasia (C. Hann), Project Group Legal Pluralism (F. and K. von Benda-Beckmann) and the Siberian Studies Centre (C. Hann and G. Schlee). The Institute’s Library, the IT Department, the Research Coordination Unit 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.