Michael Prager is lecturer of anthropology at the University of Leipzig. He studied anthropology at Leiden University and the University of Heidelberg, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1996, after which he taught at the Institute of Ethnology of the University of Muenster, Germany. He conducted field research in Indonesia, most recently in the Bima Regency of Sumbawa Island. His areas of interest include Southeast Asian Islam, kinship, ritual, cosmology and the anthropology of the body.