| Popis: |
This chapter moves beyond the traditional depiction of black confraternities as sites of distinct cultural community formation separate from Spanish, indigenous, or mixed sacred organizations to argue that the complex social relationships forged by persons of African descent within the multiethnic colonial parish formed the foundation of their religious communities. In the daily social interactions that occurred in the sacred and secular spaces of the parish, black parishioners discussed their conceptions of communal behavior with individuals of “all type of color or calidad” – as the document studied in this chapter put it – fostering a sense of Christian unity that emerged in the formation of confraternal orders. Based on a shared spirituality framed by black expertise in Christian practices, sacred communities functioned within the dynamic cultural and social milieu of the colony, not as a distinct social organization, a recognition that ultimately places black Catholics as the center of local expressions of the Catholic faith. |
