For as long as human beings have lived together, they have been dependent on a variety of factors, whether on natural and environmental conditions or on each other. The texts in this book explore the wide range of human dependency relationships, including slavery, captivity, or serfdom, through the lens of three thematic areas: staple foods, textiles and luxury foods, in relation to resources from a cross-cultural and diachronic perspective. The case studies presented in this book take images and other material objects as their starting point. They cover a large geographical area including Europe, parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas, and several millennia: from the sedentarisation of humans through the emergence of early state societies and the fundamental changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, to the present day, with the threat of global food shortages and the social situation of textile workers far from the Western world.