I would disagree, if you consider that the massive monuments were being built during the transition from hunter gatherer communitites to settled farming ones you begin to realise this was probably no coincidence. It seems likely to me that building a massive monument was an ingenious way to cement a growing community of non-related individuals, weed out those who would reap the benifits of collective food production without contributing their fair share (by making it less attractive when so much time and energy had to be contributed to something that returned little personal gain), and with the resulting focal point of a religious cult that fostered a merging of individual identities into a contrived 'family' that was reinforced by the fruits of collective effort.

The monuments also provided a very strong signal to other groups that demonstrated their collective solidarity and resolve, discouraging smaller, looser groups from attacking or stealing resources.