Currently, the study of religion in colonial Mexico is in the midst of a dynamic phase, particularly in terms of assessments of indigenous devotions. Having left behind Robert Ricard's influential metaphor about “spiritual conquest” and its near-demiurgic portrayal of mendicants at the helm of the evangelization enterprise, studies have shifted toward the analysis of mendicant policies in institutional and regional contexts and have pursued a consideration of the quotidian interactions between natives and their magistrates in terms of sacred, Christian realms. Other scholars have explored moral dialogues among ecclesiastic authorities, natives, mendicants, and priests, or investigated popular devotions without sparing a look at the various contradictions, disjunctions, and diffuse understandings that accompanied evangelization and the administration of sacraments. Some of the most important trends in the analysis of indigenous Christianities, a term decidedly in the plural, have been stimulated by works that examine the adaptation of European narratives and devotional...
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