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Archaeologists began to study slavery more than two decades ago, and since that time this interest has rapidly grown to become one of the most popular research specialties in the archaeology of the post-Columbian period. This essay reviews the interpretation of the archaeological record of slavery directed toward the analysis of four themes: living conditions under slavery, status differences within the plantation community, relationships of planter dominance and slave resistance, and formation of African-American cultural identity. It also discusses the sociopolitical context within which this study has operated and strongly recommends that greater efforts be taken to include African-American perspectives to inform this research.

The small medieval town has recently captured the attention of historians, geographers and archaeologists. Documentary work is, for example, not only disentangling the fluctuating history of local markets, but also demonstrating that, despite their small size, seignorial boroughs of the later thirteenth century had a diverse occupational structure that entitles them to be regarded as genuinely urban. Indeed, Hilton has recently argued that as much as half the urban population lived in these small towns. This research has also emphasized the economic vitality of the smaller towns in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and has raised the possibility that they were prospering at the expense of the provincial capitals, a trend to be seen in the context of the movement of industry from the towns to the countryside.

Admiral Perry's arrival in Uraga-bay in 1853 brough about enormous changes in Japan's society which had, roughly speaking, been a stable and rigid organization ever since the isolation policy was fully implemented around 1640.Not only was Japan's society turned upside down by the American action, but Perry's 'black ships' made the Japanese realize that the foreign threat could only be countered with a western-style navy.