ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳

Luis specialises in the anthropologies of Amazonia and Christianity. For his PhD research, funded by the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳, he conducted over eighteen months of fieldwork among the Ye’kwana, an indigenous group from the Upper Orinoco region, in the Venezuelan Amazon. Luis’ research explores how indigenous Amazonians use the theme of the tube/path to articulate their perceptual experiences and how these shape their experiences of Protestant Christianity and conversion to it, particularly among elder Ye’kwana. This research contributes to the growing presence of indigenous uses of the theme of the tube/path in recent Amazonianist scholarship by focusing on the role that rhythm and processes of entrainment have in indigenous epistemologies of direct perception. In particular, Luis’ research has argued that the Ye’kwana, particularly from older generations, conjure up in their notion of paths an idea of the world and social life as made of rhythmic flows that are perceived and experienced through the generation of entrainment. The transformations brought about by conversion to Christianity, including those centered on the body and sense of humanness, can be understood as taking place within this framework and being governed by ideas of how change happens within it.

Currently, as part of his visiting fellowship at the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s Anthropology Department, Luis is working on publishing his PhD thesis as a book and journal articles. Simultaneously, he is developing a research project focused on a comparative ethnographic exploration of the theme of the path/tube in the indigenous Amazon. He is ultimately interested in how entrainment and rhythm are connected to processes of perception, the place of these in indigenous intellectualizations, and their influence in indigenous ideas of ontology, cosmology, and sociality more broadly.