was trying to leave this as a comment on your blog, but enetation blows:

yeah i dont really buy that thing about them knocking down statues, and that suddenly magically changing what people believed in. i think to say that sort of thing makes people look stupid, as though they didnt realize that these statues actually stood for something greater.

although, transit that to modern day & TV, and people will worship whatever new celebrity you put in front of them, and quickly forget about yesterdays stars.

that said, our culture is all about rapid overlay and transition of ideas in a way that i dont think traditional cultures were. like if you tribe was worshipping a god embodied by a statue for 200 years, or even a few generations, that belief isn’t going to be over-written in one night.