The honest truth is that no one knows the purpose of these figures or how they were used. Unfortunately, few dealers are willing to admit that, preferring to make up ghost stories instead.
Hi Jason et al
My theory on this is that much--if not most- of what we now think we "know" about 2000 year old artifacts is educated guess work since their usage was not chronicled. But by taking small steps toward a goal of answering an unknown, we can sometimes yield logical--even accurate-- answers. My guess is that effigies were not made of living persons, but rather of deceased personages (perhaps family members or ancestors) who were thus honored and/or revered. OR... they represented gods that they depended upon for fertility, victory, protection, luck, health, etc. and thus were most likely used for "religious" purposes, such as in in shrines, or perhaps left to guard houses, fields, temples, etc.
I also agree with you in <<the breakage has nothing to do with their use, and everything to do with the fact that these figures are most frequently found under a big pile of ancient garbage, and fragile ceramic figures tend to break pretty easily.>>
--Bob
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