Does knowing the personal, social, or political context of a work of art have a bearing on how to judge the art in question?

yes all of those effect the judging process personal for example if you know the artist personally and hate them you will most likely hate there work no madder  as for socially if an artist is considered good by every one else you are more likely to say its good because of social pressures same with politics

i think these large heads represent their gods and i do think they were worshiped by the people. if there was only one head and no heads around it i think it would be monotheistic but if there are several heads close to each other it could be polytheistic.