Evidence from the Narragansett Bay region suggests that subsistence practices here progressively diversified and expanded over the last 3000 years of the prehistoric period. This trend is reflected in faunal (vertebrate and molluskan) and macrobotanical assemblages, as well as the regional palynological and ethnohistoric records. Although production expanded over time, the specialized or “focal” economies common elsewhere in eastern North America, did not seemingly develop. This increase (intensification) in production was achieved through diversification and cultural modification of the landscape rather than specialization. Some possible explanations for this pattern are considered.
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