Born in Valencia in 1948, studied law and economics at the University of Deusto and Social Anthropology at King's College, University of Cambridge. Currently he is Professor of Social Anthropology at the Complutense University of Madrid. He has been invited at the universities of Rio Piedras and Interamericana de Puerto Rico, UIMP, La Sapienza of Rome, Perugia and Bordeaux teacher. It is academic of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.

He is the author of the books The Albufera and his men. A Study of Social Anthropology in Valencia (1982); Identity and Creation (1993); Cultural Values​​. Social change between tradition and modernity (1999); Look, listen, compare, write. The practice of qualitative research (2003), and Meninas, mirrors and spinners. Essays in Anthropology of Art (Trotta, 2005).