[BroJoeK]

Colorado tanker: "it would be interesting to know if these figurines resembled the mature women of the day or if this was some kind of exaggerated, ritualized view of female fertility."

Assuming the male brain in those days was similar to ours, you have to think those were idealized visions of feminine pulchritude.
Sure, fashions change, but what were those old guys thinking about?

[Covenantor]

I’ve never been convinced that figures such as this and the Willmendorf Venus represent idealized feminine beauty or godesses. A beer fueled discussion long ago resulted in a consensus that they were all mother-in-law representations, embodying all of the negative attributes of an elder woman controlling the social life of younger couples.

One observation ended the discussion. It was noted that almost all of these mother goddess figures fit comfortably to hand and suitable as projectiles to ward off human and animal predators and supernatural terrors because of the sheer ugliness.

What enemy would attack a second time if they thought your best women looked like those figures?

[colorado tanker]

They were living at the dawn of the agricultural revolution and the guys were probably thinking I need a woman to give me lots of kids to run this place.