Mobility affords hunter-gatherers a degree of freedom not available to agricultural
peoples and may be one reason for its persistence as an ideology (Scott 2009). We
can see the value of mobility in how hunter-gatherer groups respond to stress and
uncertainty. Numerous studies have documented how these groups behave under
To put this in another way, opportunism does not
mean they will simply abandon their way of life at a time of stress, but they may
try new ways of doing things, to evaluate whether it improves their overall socialecological
situation. It is part of a well-developed social maintenance strategy. In
Barker’s words: “It is at least as likely that in very many instances foragers were
attempting to preserve their way of life at a time of stress, rather than deliberately
seeking to transform it” (2008: 15; emphasis in original).
Surveying the literature on responses to climatic stress, Raj Puri (following
Ross Couper-Johnston) shows how, as drought becomes more severe in arid
environments and food staples become scarce, foragers will typically deploy a set
of strategies that escalates in effort as conditions worsen: