@halberd @BowsacNoodle
Kenneth A. Mathews, a great OT scholar and man of God, in his commentary on the Patriarchs section of Genesis posited that the possession of household gods may have represented legitimacy of inheritance and other economic values, like dowry that Laban defrauded from Jacob and Rachel through the forced marriage to Leah. By stealing the gods, Rachel was taking hold of the title to Laban's property.

Apologies for the cruddy transliterations of NEA words in the screencap. Okular does not render them correctly.