One distinctive characteristic of many of the figurines has resulted in the discussion in the archaeological literature and elsewhere of the possibility of the Maltese being the center of a woman-based religious cult. It is true that many of the figurines recovered from the temples are of lushly obese women, like the so-called "Sleeping Lady of Malta" illustrated above. In addition, many of the temple rooms are demonstrably mammiform--that is, bulbously oval and shaped, if you look at them from the air, like women's breasts. In particular, Marija Gimbutas took this idea and ran with it, envisioning Malta as the center (and founding place) of the pan-European goddess movement.
However, several points argue against this. For one thing, not all, and in fact only a minority, of the figurines are of women; many others are of animals or humans of unidentifiable gender. Secondly, while the single rooms are definitely mammiform, in most cases, the rooms are in groups of three, not two, as one might expect from an idea that's supposed to represent women's breasts.
In addition, a reasonable argument might be made that the fat ladies are a response to famine conditions. By the time of the appearance of the corpulent figurines, and the most elaborate work on the temples, trade with Italy and Sicily had been cut off, agricultural production had been reduced and the population had increased to untenable size. It is possible that being fat was a luxury that few people on Malta and Gozo could achieve, and thus being fat might have been looked upon as a sacred image.
Since we don't have any documents explaining what was going on in Maltese minds, all of this is speculation.
Sources
See the Malta Temples bibliography for more information.
