What is the importance of the "Mouth-of-Mattapoisett" in the novel, Woman on the Edge of Time?

Mouth-of-Mattapoisett is the name of Luciente's home community, where all the residents/citizens live as independent but communally-minded individuals. There is a real world Mattapoisett in the same way as there is a real world New York City. That Mattapoisett is a community in Massachusetts, originally built around the ship-building industry at the "mouth" of the Mattapoisett River, and now a suburb of Boston.