PhD in Social Anthropology (1994, ISCTE-IUL); Masters in Ethnology (1982, Université de Nice); degree in Social and Human Sciences (1979, FCSH-UNL). He is an investigator integrated in the CRIA and also collaborates with the Institute of Studies of Traditional Literature (FCSH-UNL). He is an associate researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS-UL).

His activity as a researcher began in the personal knowledge of the Museum of Ethnology group in the early 1970s and has focused on traditional Portuguese society in contexts of change, such as emigration, tourism and environmental problems (climate change and coastal erosion, sustainability of social regimes related to water, energy crops). He carried out fieldwork in the South of Portugal, with emphasis on the Algarve and Southwest Alentejo.

He has worked on the legacy of the Ethnological Studies Center / Museum of Ethnology and on the ethnological heritage in Portugal (mainly vernacular architecture), has developed programming for museums and is an author or collaborator in several projects presented for the Algarve and Alentejo. He has explored themes in the areas of ethnopsychiatry and creative processes in art and scientific research.