News Archive

Financial institutions around the world have made it easier for private individuals to take out a variety of loans and use financial products to invest and speculate. This trend has affected the ways in which people purchase property, consume desired goods, or cope with financial crises. But the influence of debt and the financial industry extends also beyond the economic sphere to changing lifestyles, gender relations, and familial ties. The conference ‘Household Finance in an Unequal World: Social Approaches’ at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology on 5–6 December takes a closer look at these developments. more

It is with great sadness that we received the news of the death of Thomas Hylland Eriksen, a highly valued colleague whom we were honoured to have as the External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Thomas Hylland Eriksen was among the most prominent social anthropologists of our time. His ideas have influenced generations of anthropologists and even far beyond, reaching broad audiences around the world. He was a frequent guest at the MPI and his lectures and contributions greatly enriched our scientific profile. His passing on 27 November 2024 at the age of 62 came far too soon. We will sorely miss his insights and passion and the sincere and straightforward manner with which he embraced scholarly discussions. more

Dr. Hatem Elliesie, long-time Group Leader in the Department ‘Law & Anthropology’ at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, accepted an appointment as Professor for Islamic Law at Leipzig University on 1 August 2024. We talked with him about his new responsibilities and his research and teaching plans. more

Sleep is a fragile state. It is easily disrupted and does not come at our bidding. For even though we can try to create ideal conditions for getting sufficient restful sleep, it cannot be consciously controlled. Because there is no intentional action by which we can will ourselves to sleep, sleep disorders are all the more distressing. Consequently, getting to the bottom of the various types and causes of disturbed sleep has long been an important concern in medicine and related fields. Today, this is often studied with the help of sleep labs. But do they actually work? We talked with Julia Vorhölter about her research in German sleep labs and about the particular atmosphere of a space where the private and intimate realm of sleep meets technological diagnostic equipment. more

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology will present their project Re-mind the ‘Nearby’ at the storytelling evening of Volkshochschule Leipzig on Friday, 6 September between 16:30 and 20:00. The photos and audio recordings bring to life the experiences of migrant women from Eritrea, Syria, the Sudan, and Ukraine as they talk about arriving and settling in Halle and how they have created a new nearby far from their homelands. The stories are in English and German. The event is free and open to the public. more

Why are there so many UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Saxony-Anhalt, but very few in Asia and Africa? What is a good night's sleep and how can we measure it? How does our culture influence the practice of organ donation? How do courts deal with behaviors that do not conform to our ideas of "normal"? What has the phasing out of lignite-fired power generation in the Central German mining area done to the people who live there? Social Anthropologists will provide answers to these five questions at Science Night on Friday, July 5, starting at 5 p.m. in the Melanchthonianum, lecture hall D, on Uniplatz in Halle. more

On 3 June 2024, past and present Institute members and guests from science and politics convened at the MPI for Social Anthropology in Halle to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its founding. Opening the festivities, Head of Research Group Christoph Brumann und Director Ursula Rao took the audience through an entertaining retrospective of the past 25 years. The afternoon was dedicated to a panel discussion on the question “Does Transformation Need Science?” featuring Minister Armin Willingmann and Mayor Egbert Geier along with Ursula Rao, Christine Sattler of the Freiwilligen-Agentur Halle, and Professor Patrick Jahn from MLU Halle. more

Interview with Head of Research Group Mareike Schmidt more

What happens when anthropologists spend months in a foreign place, immersing themselves in the lives of others? Where does their research take them and what insights does it bring? In the exhibition “Wechsel Deine Perspektive – Ethnologie öffnet Türen”, researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (MPI) and the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg open doors into their work. The exhibition will be on display from 17 April to 7 July 2024 in the main building of the university (Löwengebäude, Universitätsplatz 11). It is open Wed–Sun between 13:00 and 18:00; admission is free. more

On 1 February 2024, Biao Xiang, Director of the Department ‘Anthropology of Economic Experimentation’, begins his term as Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (MPI). He takes over from Ursula Rao, who has performed this function since 1 February 2022. more