Born1953 in Mostaganem, Algeria. Study of geology in Paris, researcher at the French national research centre CNRS, Habilitation in anthropology at the University of Bordeaux, France (1991), guest researcher at the University of Berkeley/California (1992), Harvard University (1997) and Stanford University (1999). Director of Research at CNRS (1993-2000), Professor of Anthropology at the University of Bordeaux (2000-2004), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (2004-2021), emertius sind Nov. 2021, Honorary Professor of Anthropology Leipzig Univ. (2006).