The Social Construction of Monumentality: Ancient Monuments and the Monumental in Space

Monumentality is a social construct that corresponds to very basic social needs for symbolism and abstraction, stimulation of the imagination of social agents, narrativization of the human experience, and mythopoesis. The origins of the monumental in human societies are related to the production and cultivation of awe and of religious veneration as social bonds. Although the need for monumentality was contested at the start of the twentieth century, its importance was later acknowledged by some of its attackers.