 He was a student of Philosophy, Anthropology and Psychology at the Free University of Berlin.He holds a Diploma in Psychology (1985) and a PhD in Philosophy (1991).His anthropological field research was conducted in Israel and the Palestinian territories (1987,1991), Yemen (1993–1994), the United States ("Native Americans in the State of New York" 1996-1997; "The Social Construction of Race at the Mississippi"1999) and Mali (1999).