I dunno, for such things as necessary and uncontrollable as rain to ancient cultures, there is also the stress of 'what if it doesn't rain?'.
People (me) hate being helpless, especially during crises or crunch points, so giving people busy work to quiet their anxiety during this period is socially a necessary step. I recall being trained to do the same thing for emergencies: give people small discrete tasks to keep them occupied and out of the way.
I'm only familiar with 'doll' in the crime noir sense. While it has very misogynist connotations, I don't see it as being among the worst.
Point being, I know I'm missing something, but don't know what.