Rate and process of societal change in semitropical settings: The ancient Maya and the living Balinese

Anthropological archaeology provides the best window into how ancient societies coped with environmental exigencies and to what degree society itself may have been responsible for environmental change. By examining two pathways to social complexity-one based on technological breakthroughs (technotasking) and the other on highly organized labor management (labortasking)-early statecraft is assessed. Both the ancient Maya and the present-day Balinese are examined as case studies of the labortasking trajectory. The significance of past social organizational systems for assessing the immediate future is suggested.