Welcome to the Website of the Area of Ancient American Studies (Altamerikanistik) and Cultural and Social Anthropology at the Institute for Latin American Studies!
Ancient American Studies and Cultural and Social Anthropology analyze socio-cultural dynamics in Latin America and their historical and contemporary translocal and transregional interconnections. With a focus on everyday practices and negotiations, this area of studies asks how people act, think, feel, and communicate in a transnationally connected world. From a decolonial and gender-theoretically informed perspective, teaching and research are concerned with the relationships between local, national, and global communities, ideas, cultures, and institutions. Important topics are migrations, social movements, medialities, urban spaces, heritage, and constructions of belonging and difference.