Explanatory Models for the Evolution of Coastal Adaptation in Prehistoric Eastern New England
Abstract
Archaeological records of the fourth and third millennia B.P. in eastern New England, from Massachusetts to Maine, evidence the initiation and spread of intensive shellfish exploitation from a Late Archaic forest and riverine-oriented economic base. Changes in the degree of exploitation of several shellfish species follow the economic shift during Early and Middle Woodland times. Ritchie and Snow have recently explained these changes as the result of a single process of purely internally initiated cultural evolution involving a systematic expansion of exploitative techniques and the subsistence base. Evidence from the Boston Harbor area, Massachusetts, and from paleoclimatic, ecological, and paleoecological literature are presented in arguing that such an explanation is unwarranted. An alternative framework, emphasizing the primacy of ecological factors, is presented.
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Cites
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Some Aspects of Eastern North American Prehistory: a Review 1975
Dragoo, D. W. (1976) · American Antiquity · doi:10.2307/279039 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
- Authors
- Braun, D. P.
- Corresponding author
- Braun, David P.
- Venue
- American Antiquity
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1974-10
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 4Part1
- Pages
- 582-596
- ISSN
- 0002-7316 (ISSN-L)
- 2325-5064
- OpenAlex
- W2070697381
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 5.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Antiquity (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Maritime and Coastal Archaeology
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Archaeological and Geological Studies
- Keywords
- coastal adaptation, shellfish exploitation, Late Archaic period, Woodland period, subsistence economy, cultural evolution, paleoclimate, paleoecology, Boston Harbor
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