She was associated with maize that grew in multiples or was similarly strange. In Inca mythology, Sara Mama was the goddess of grain. Apple dolls are traditional North American dolls with a head made from dried apples. The tea dolls of the Innu people were filled with tea for young girls to carry on long journeys. Their clothing articulates the traditional style of dress necessary to survive cold winters, wind, and snow. Many are clothed with animal fur or skin. Inuit dolls are made out of soapstone and bone, materials common to the Inuit. Kachina dolls are objects meant to be treasured and studied in order to learn the characteristics of each Kachina. Hopi Kachina dolls are effigies made of cottonwood that embody the characteristics of the ceremonial Kachina, the masked spirits of the Hopi Native American tribe. It resembles a stereotypical witch or crone and is displayed in residential kitchens as a means to provide good luck and ward off bad spirits. A kitchen witch is a poppet originating in Northern Europe. Likely the voodoo doll concept in popular culture is influenced by the European poppet. Voodoo dolls are not a feature of Haitian Vodou religion, but have been portrayed as such in popular culture, and stereotypical voodoo dolls are sold to tourists in Haiti. The practice of sticking pins in voodoo dolls have been associated with African-American Hoodoo folk magic. The intention is that whatever actions are performed upon the effigy will be transferred to the subject through sympathetic magic. In European folk magic and witchcraft, poppet dolls are used to represent a person for casting spells on that person. Examples of such magical devices include the European poppet and the nkisi or bocio of West and Central Africa. The use of an effigy to perform a spell on someone is documented in African, Native American, and European cultures. Wooden Kokeshi dolls have no arms or legs, but a large head and cylindrical body, representing little girls. They represent Bodhidharma, the East Indian who founded Zen, and are used as good luck charms. Daruma dolls are spherical dolls with red bodies and white faces without pupils. These are made of straw and wood, painted, and dressed in elaborate, many-layered textiles. During Hinamatsuri, the doll festival, hina dolls ( 雛人形, hina-ningyō) are displayed. By the eleventh century, dolls were used as playthings as well as for protection and in religious ceremonies. and Haniwa funerary figures (300–600 AD). There is a rich history of Japanese dolls dating back to the Dogū figures (8000–200 BCE). Japanese hina dolls, displayed during the Hinamatsuri festival Roman rag dolls have been found dating back to 300 BC. Rag dolls are traditionally home-made from spare scraps of cloth material. In Greece and Rome, it was customary for boys to dedicate their toys to the gods when they reached puberty and for girls to dedicate their toys to the goddesses when they married. Like children today, the younger members of Roman civilization would have dressed their dolls according to the latest fashions. Dolls have been found in the graves of Roman children. In ancient Rome, dolls were made of clay, wood or ivory. Stories from ancient Greece around 100 AD show that dolls were used by little girls as playthings.

Rag dolls and stuffed animals were probably also popular, but no known examples of these have survived to the present day.

Archaeologists have discovered Greek dolls made of clay and articulated at the hips and shoulders. Dolls with movable limbs and removable clothing date back to at least 200 BC. Wooden paddle dolls have been found in Egyptian tombs dating to as early as the 21st century BC. Archaeological evidence places dolls as the foremost candidate for the oldest known toy. The earliest dolls were made from available materials such as clay, stone, wood, bone, ivory, leather, or wax. Of their small size, dolls are frequently found in ancient Peruvian tombs.

Textile doll (11th century), Chancay culture, found near Lima, Walters Art Museum.

Black baby doll made in china