Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (German: Max-Planck-Institut für ethnologische Forschung) is a scientific research institute founded in 1999 in Halle, Germany. It is one of the institutes of the Max Planck Society.

Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Abbreviation	MPIEF
Formation	1999; 26 years ago (1999)
Type	Scientific institute
Purpose	Research in sociocultural anthropology and social change
Headquarters	Halle, Germany
Managing director	Ursula Rao
Directors	Marie-Claire Foblets Chris Hann (retired) Ursula Rao Biao Xiang
Key people	Chris Hann and Günther Schlee, founding directors
Parent organization	Max Planck Society
Staff	>175
Website	(in English) (in German)

Organization

The institute consists of three departments and several independent research groups.

Law and Anthropology

Headed by Prof. Dr. Marie-Claire Foblets, the Department of Law and Anthropology was established in 2012 to focus on the effects of societies and cultures towards law and politics and vice versa. This department also carefully looks how scholars of this specific discipline can and should take responsibility for implications surrounding the interplay of these societal factors.^[1]

Anthropology of Politics and Governance

Headed by Prof. Dr. Ursula Rao, the Department of Anthropology of Politics and Governance brings together a group of successful scholars undertaking research in form of in-depth case studies in Asia, Africa and Europe about the tactics, strategies, and motivations that shape political action in times of perceived crisis to study programmes and initiatives that aim to shape the future by proposing new ways of managing complexity and caring for relations in a more-than-human world.^[2]

Anthropology of Economic Experimentation

Headed by Prof. Dr. Biao Xiang, the Department of Anthropology of Economic Experimentation focuses on a wide range of political economy issues, including state-society relations, labour, social reproduction, and mobility governance, through the lens of migration.^[2]

Max Planck Law

The institute (department of law and anthropology) is part of the research network Max Planck Law.

Management

The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology is mainly represented by the following people:^[3]

Directors

• Prof. Dr. Marie-Claire Foblets
• Prof. Dr. Ursula Rao
• Prof. Dr. Biao Xiang

Fellow

• Burkhard Schnepel

Services

• Bettina Mann (Research Coordinator)
• Anja Neuner (Head Librarian)

Controversies

Norman Finkelstein

In January 2017, the Department of Law and Anthropology has invited the controversial American activist and political scientist Norman Finkelstein as a visiting scholar. The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology has thus been criticized for providing a platform for a controversial speaker. In a statement the Max Planck Institute said that the purpose of Finkelstein's invitation to the Institute was to engage in a dialogue with him to discuss his work within an academic context. The research institute is dedicated to basic research where controversy cannot be ruled out; controversy is a "trait of academic work".^[4]

Ghassan Hage

Hage was terminated by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology on 7 February 2024 over his comments on the Gaza war and the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.^[5][6][7][8] On 7 October 2023, Hage published a text on his blog stating "the Palestinians, like all colonised people, are still proving that their capacity to resist is endless. They don't only dig tunnels. They can fly above walls."^[9]

The Max Planck Society published a press release, stating that many of the views he had shared via social media after the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel are incompatible with their core values and that "racism, anti-Semitism, islamophobia, discrimination, hatred and agitation have no place in the Max Planck Society".^[10] Hage rejected any accusation in a statement.^[11]

Following the dismissal, global academic communities, including Israeli scholars,^[12] the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology,^[13] the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies,^[14] the European Association of Social Anthropologists,^[15] the American Anthropological Association,^[16] the Council for Humanities, Arts and Sciences and the Australian Anthropological Society^[17] rallied in support of Hage, urging the society to reverse its decision.