Another ceramic form that has attracted much attention from scholars is a small clay human figure assigned to prehistoric manufacture. These figurines are fine-grained and fired hard.
It is remembered by some Seri that older women made these figurines around 1900 for little girls to play with. Seri attribute the prehistoric ones to "giants." These are legendary figures who were either Seri ancestors, large aliens who appeared among them for a time, or mythological beings.
Seri who find the little forms often sell them to tourists. Some present-day potters often manufacture their own for sale but these are easily detected by their crudity and coarseness.
Scholars have studied the figurines and applied known formulas for determining their purpose. Hypotheses have ranged through fetishes, fertility figures, funerary offerings, and dolls. There are no good arguments so far published to support any of these ideas except that of playthings.