SUMMARY The construction of the sacred in the Jesuit missions of Antigua California: a hermeneutical approach

Abstract

As part of an investigation into Antigua California, which covers the presence of the Society of Jesus in that region between 1697 and 1768, it is of interest to address the communicative and expressive processes through which the Jesuit missionaries, on the one hand, and the native population, on the other hand, participated in different dynamics of negotiation and confrontation, focused mainly on the interpretation of objects and images considered sacred, as well as their bearers. Starting from a hermeneutic perspective, I seek to characterize collective subjectivity as a central component of social life and a determining element to understand the behavior of such intercultural relations in the context of said area of northwestern New Spain, where an attempt was made to implement the evangelizing strategy of a globalizing corporate vision promoted by the Jesuits within a singular environment, constituted by the ways of life of pre-existing human groups.