Paper short abstract:

Based on fieldwork among spiritual practitioners in Lisbon, this paper explores not only the creativity with which people in Lisbon practise their religiosity, but also the innovative dilemmas raised in the field, challenging the discipline of anthropology at a methodological and theoretical level.

Paper long abstract:

Based on current field research among practitioners of alternative forms of spirituality in Lisbon, the aim of this paper is two-fold. First, I want to explore the creative ways in which people in Lisbon practise their spirituality by incorporating religious ideas, objects, and discourses in their spiritual performances, challenging the alleged antithesis between religion and spirituality. I aim to show how, through the innovative manner with which these practitioners of alternative spirituality handle themselves during their everyday lives, they ultimately contribute to the transformation of contemporary Portuguese religiosity at a greater level.

My second aim is to pay attention to the diverse and conflicting, yet methodologically innovative, dilemmas the anthropologist has to face in the field, and how these result in a theoretical and analytic confrontation with the discipline of anthropology itself. Drawing on a request made by one of my informants during fieldwork, I will describe how this incident challenged my perception of epistemology in anthropology, raising more general questions about the anthropologist's relation with his/her own discipline, and how it helped me approach my own reflexivity more creatively.