In this chapter tomb paintings join the selection of texts (preserved on stone, papyrus, and leather) to show the role of dependence as a structural feature of pharaonic society. Foreigners were acquired through raiding and warfare, and settled in both existing and new communities. An actual trade in persons is also documented and varying aspects of the experience of such individuals is examined, as they were exploited by those who purchased them or passed them on as gifts. Changes over time in the vocabulary of dependence are discussed, as are the different types of work and production in which such dependents were involved. Non-free dependents were employed on the land, in animal herding, and in artisanal workshops, especially textiles, as well as in the home. The key economic role of Egyptian temples is a constant feature of the period.

In Babylonia, the name was used to establish the social identity of its bearer. Names attested to the piety of the family through frequent references to the protection of the divinity of the city or country. The name also marked the place of an individual within their kinship group. The frequent use of family names by the urban elite of the first millennium BCE, often referring to a prestigious ancestor, made it possible to mark a person as belonging to a well-recognised family group. By contrast, slaves, oblates, and other dependents often only had their personal name and their social qualification.

This chapter discusses the typology and the social and gender aspects of Babylonian female names recorded in the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods (626–330 BCE). As to typology, a distinction is made between names that constitute a sentence and those that constitute a noun. In both categories, further subdivisions are possible. As to the social use of female names, the chapter discusses how names indicate the social status and origins of their bearers. Although most female names were given to women of any social status, some names were typical of enslaved women. Finally, the chapter discusses the distinctions between male and female names.

This chapter examines the distinctions made between slaves and free persons in Greek law, politics, religion and civic ideology. It also explores the ways that slaves subverted these distinctions in everyday life and thereby exposes their artificiality.