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Their discovery of a preceramic temple at the Peruvian site of Kotosh in 1960 led Japanese Andeanists to suggest that repeated temple constructions played a driving role in the development of Andean civilization. More recent finds of ceremonial constructions dating to the preceramic and early ceramic periods in other parts of the world allow us to re-evaluate their proposal from a cross-cultural perspective and to re-examine the concept of the state critically. Whereas early ceremonial constructions in some areas do not appear to have led directly to state formation, monumental constructions built between 1100 and 750 BC in the Maya lowlands triggered a social trajectory toward the emergence of dynasties. Early organizers of ceremonies may have provided a prototype of later Maya rulership, which was closely tied to public performance. Early buildings probably facilitated collaboration among many people without pronounced inequality, but this process likely produced a basis for later hierarchical organization by creating political subjects who willingly accept communal obligations. Those observations encourage us to move beyond the restrictive approach to the state and to examine different dimensions of broad social processes.