We investigate the interplay of collective and chaotic motion in a classical self-bound N-body system with two-body interactions. This system displays a hierarchy of three well-separated time scales that govern the onset of chaos, damping of collective motion and equilibration. Comparison with a mean-field problem shows that damping is mainly due to dephasing. The Lyapunov exponent, damping, and equilibration rates depend mildly on the system size N. (c) 2000 The American Physical Society.