ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how a social structure, through the intricacies of evolving social relations, affects the processes of cultural collapse. Although there are similarities in social structure between the Maya and the Romans, it is the differences that are most relevant to the differing contexts of collapse. In the agricultural economy of the Roman Empire, the chief determinant of status was ownership of land. Landowners, also heavily involved in trade and finance, were the upper status in the cities. The social organization of the Maya in the Precolumbian period is important to reconstructing their world and considering how it might have changed through time leading to the collapse. The "Great Tradition" of the Classic Maya was defined by elite similarities. Elites related mostly with each other, as the alliances and marriages, and perhaps even defeats in war, would make them feel more akin to each other than to the supporting population.
