Anna Fedele

• PhD
• Associated Researcher at Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon

This article is based on ethnographic research about the intersections of contemporary forms of spirituality and Catholicism in Italy, Spain, France and Portugal and analyses what social actors mean when they say that they are ‘spiritual but not religious’ (SBNR). We need to go beyond this self-description and try to understand why spirituality is...

"Secular Societies, Spiritual Selves?" is the first volume to address the gendered intersections of religion, spirituality, and the secular through an ethnographic approach. The book examines how ‘spirituality’ has emerged as a relatively ‘silent’ category with which people often signal that they are looking for a way to navigate between the categ...

This WORKING PAPER tackles dilemmas around translation and betrayal inherent in ethnography that focuses on religious contexts. Layered life stories (LLS) are presented as an invaluable means of providing a thick and evolving description of informants’ religious worlds that can do justice to their complexity and vitality. Recollected through long-t...

In this introduction to the collection “Birthing matters in Portugal,” the contributions of anthropology to the understanding of childbirth as social practice are outlined. Portugal is a country with one of the highest rates of medical intervention in childbirth in Europe, and widespread and diverse opposition to current medicalised approaches to b...

Based on ethnographic findings, this chapter focuses on ‘energy pilgrims’, sacred travelers influenced by contemporary forms of spirituality. Exploring how ‘energy pilgrims’ translate Catholic pilgrimage sites into a transnational energy grammar, we discover why this kind of sacred journeys has become more and more popular during the last 30 years....

The article is based on research about holistic mothering in contemporary Portugal. Holistic mothering is an umbrella term, used here to describe different mothering choices based on the assumption that pregnancy, birthing and early mothering are important spiritual experiences for the mother and the child, but also for the father. In Portugal, man...

In this introduction to the collection “Birthing matters in Portugal,” the contributions of anthropology to the understanding of childbirth as social practice are outlined. Portugal is a country with one of the highest rates of medical intervention in childbirth in Europe, and widespread and diverse opposition to current medicalised approaches to b...

This is a pre-print version of a chapter that will be published in: "PILGRIMAGE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY Translating the Sacred" Edited by Simon Coleman and John Eade (forthcoming, July 2018, Berghahn) http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/ColemanPilgrimage Abstract: Based on ethnographic findings, this chapter focuses on ‘energy pilgrims’, sacred tr...

This paper is based on ongoing fieldwork at the Catholic pilgrimage shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. It analyzes the ritual creativity and religious critique of the pilgrims, drawing on authors who have emphasized the importance of «lived religion» (e.g. Orsi 2006; McGuire 2008; Ammerman 2013). Focusing on one particular place, the so-call...

Prendendo le mosse dal dibattito sullo spiritual turn (Heelas and Woodhead 2005) secondo il quale un numero crescente di persone (prevalentemente donne) nel mondo occidentale starebbero abbandonando la religione per volgersi verso la spiritualità, in questo contributo si esplorano i risultati di una ricerca etnografica in Italia, Spagna e Portogall...

Contemporary spirituality tends to present itself as an alternative to the disempowering gender models established religions offer especially to women. In this ethnographically grounded chapter, Fedele and Knibbe argue that in contemporary spirituality discourses of gendered empowerment are often based upon a strategy of construction by opposition...

This paper is based on early fieldwork findings on ‘holistic mothering’ in contemporary Portugal. I use holistic mothering as an umbrella term to cover different mothering choices, which are rooted in the assumption that pregnancy, childbirth and early childhood are important spiritual occasions for both mother and child. Considering that little so...

This chapter is based on fieldwork carried out in Spain and Portugal among different spiritual groups that were influenced by the international Pagan movement. The women (and few men) I encountered did not feel at ease with the term “Pagan” and preferred to refer to a “Goddess spirituality”. They held that British and American forms of Paganism nee...

This paper is based on fieldwork among Portuguese, Italians, Catalans and Spaniards influenced by the transnational Goddess spirituality movement. Through an analysis of ritual narratives the author analyses the role of doubt and uncertainty in contemporary rituals created within Goddess spirituality. She will show that contemporary crafted rituals...

In recent years an increasing number of travelers have visited sites considered 'power places', with the intention of tapping into their energy and the experiential transformation and healing associated with such sites. This article is based on fieldwork among pilgrims influenced by the international Goddess movement, visiting Catholic shrines in S...

2012: The Environmental Prophecy That Could Not Fail Anna Fedele The Revelation of Climate Change Peter Rudiak-Gould Facing the Apocalypse: Environmental Crisis and Religion Terry Leahy Challenging the Skeptics: False Prophecy and Climate Activism Stefan Skrimshire

Contemporary spiritual practitioners tend to present their own spirituality as non-hierarchical and gender equal, in contrast to 'established' religions. Current studies of these movements often reproduce their self-description as empowering, while other literature reacts polemically against these movements , describing them as narcissist and irrel...

This book provides a detailed ethnography of alternative pilgrimages to Catholic shrines in contemporary France that are dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene or house black Madonna statues. Based on more than three years of fieldwork it describes the way in which pilgrims with a Christian background from Italy, Spain, Britain and the United States int...

This is the English version of an article that has been published in French: Fedele, Anna. 2014. “Doute et incertitude dans les nouveaux rituels contemporains”, Social Compass, 61.4, 497-510. This paper is based on fieldwork among Portuguese, Italians, Catalans and Spaniards influenced by the transnational Goddess spirituality movement. Through an...

This text analyses the gradual spread of the feminist spirituality movement (also described as the Goddess movement) in traditionally Catholic countries of Southern Europe such as Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Drawing on fieldwork among Italian and Spanish pilgrims visiting French shrines related to saint Mary Magdalene (2002-2005) and on later, ongo...

Social scientists and philosophers confronted with religious phenomena have always been challenged to find a proper way to describe the spiritual experiences of the social group they were studying. The influence of the Cartesian dualism of body and mind (or soul) led to a distinction between non-material, spiritual experiences (i.e., related to the...

Social scientists and philosophers confronted with religious phenomena have always been challenged to find a proper way to describe the spiritual experiences of the social group they were studying. The influence of the Cartesian dualism of body and mind (or soul) led to a distinction between non-material, spiritual experiences (i.e., related to the...

In recent years, the pilgrimage shrine of La Sainte-Baume has attracted an increasing number of non-Catholic pilgrims influenced by the ‘New Age’ and the Neopagan movement. These pilgrims consider Mary Magdalene as a sort of female counterpart of Jesus and the mountain of La Sainte-Baume, where according to a Christian legend she spent the last par...

des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales 1 This article describes the beliefs and some of the ritual practices of a group of female pilgrims visiting places in France and Catalonia that they associate with the figure of Mary Magdalene. It pays particular attention to the pil-grim's process of learning ways to relate to her own body and to her men-str...

What are the problems encountered by an ethnographer in describing pilgrims influenced by recent reinterpretations of Mary Magdalene? Which books do these pilgrims rely on in formulating their own ideas, and what pilgrimage routes do they follow in France? Dan Brown¿s novel The DaVinci Code has popularized the idea that Mary Magdalene was Christ¿s...