This article re-evaluates Spanish–Japanese relations during the seventeenth century by showing how previous scholarship regarding Spanish and Portuguese policies towards Japan has incorrectly applied the same conclusions to both groups. Instead Spanish policies were aimed at protecting the Pacific trade, which included the maintaining of Manila, rather than trade and the propagation of the Christian faith in Japan that has been associated with Portuguese policies. Spanish–Japanese interactions during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries can be divided into three periods, each with a specific theme. This article focuses on the period between 1609–1616, which was the height of Spanish–Japanese relations, and demonstrates how officials who were in Spain, the Americas and Manila influenced the policies adopted by the Spanish.

Following its independence in 1975, the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique suffered a devastating civil war until the early 1990s. This war, between the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) and the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo), was the context within which issues of underdevelopment and political divisions unfolded. It is well-documented that throughout the Civil War the Renamo rebels, who were primarily a proxy army for the Apartheid regime in South Africa, used the territory of neighbouring Malawi to supply their forces in northern Mozambique and to seek refuge from the operations of the Mozambican armed forces (FPLM). It is extremely unlikely that this could have occurred without the cooperation, or at least acquiescence, of Malawian authorities. This article surveys the history of post-independence relations between Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa, in order to examine a number of theories explaining Malawian support for Renamo. Four main theories are critically assessed and it is argued that the best explanation of Malawi’s relationship with Renamo is that connections were fostered between the paramilitary Malawi Young Pioneers (MYPs), the Malawian Police Force and Renamo, under the direction of the governor of Malawi’s Central Bank, John Tembo. Tembo sought to succeed Banda and become President of Malawi, but faced challenges from various competitors. By aiding Renamo with training and use of Malawian territory, and forging a bond with their South African and American backers, Tembo hoped that Renamo could be called upon as a third force to support him during any struggle over succession in Malawi.

This article examines discourses of 'religion' and considers whether discourses of 'religion' may be considered secularising discourses in the context of the San Francisco Peaks, which various American Indian tribes in the southwestern United States have struggled for decades to protect from what many have described as 'desecration'. It suggests that although indigenous practitioners and advocates may employ a variety of discourses and categories of religion in their efforts to protect the San Francisco Peaks, these discourses are not necessarily secularising discourses. Most importantly, this article argues that western categories do not apply to indigenous traditions and that even when indigenous peoples use these discourses and categories, they do not necessarily use them in the same way that westerners do. Therefore, the question of whether discourses of religion may be considered secularising discourses is essentially inapplicable the context of the San Francisco Peaks.

The architects of the Nazi euthanasia program were acutely aware of the moral dilemma killing posed for institutional staff and implemented measures to reduce the strain on staff. The organisation of the killing program was a critical factor in the cooperation of nurses in the murder of institutional patients. This article examines how spatial boundaries within killing institutions and the secrecy surrounding the euthanasia program impacted on the behaviour of female nurses. These issues are examined though a study of female nurses who were involved in the killing of patients at the Landesheil- und Pflegeanstalt Eichberg, an institution that served as a 'medicalised killing' institution between 1941 and 1945. This article briefly outlines the history of the Nazi euthanasia program, the organisation of the killing operation at Eichberg and the role played by female nurses at medicalised killing institutions. The ways in which the organisation of the killing operation impacted upon the conduct of nurses and the strategies employed by nurses to reconcile their participation in medicalised killing are then examined in greater detail. The spatial boundaries within killing institutions and the secrecy surrounding the killings were important elements of the mechanics of the medicalised killing institutions. These spatial boundaries were reinforced by the hierarchical structure of killing institutions and the compartmentalisation of professional roles, which allowed nurses to shift responsibility for the killings.

This article examines the political and social atmosphere surrounding the production of the thirteenth-century hand scroll Kitano Tenjin engi emaki (Illustrated Legends of the Kitano Shrine), which depicts the life, death, and posthumous revenge of the ninth-century courtier Sugawara no Michizane. The article combines an analysis of the content and religious iconography of the scroll, a study of early Japanese beliefs in angry spirits of the dead, and a narration of the actual life of Michizane in an attempt to produce a sketch of the rituals and superstitions of Heian and early Kamakura period Japanese society, and to suggest possible functions of the handscroll that complement them.