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
stressful conditions (e.g., De Garine and Harrison 1988). They have a tendency to
be “opportunistic,” moving—often rapidly—into different social and economic
niches when circumstances change. This is a common finding in the literature on
Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers, including negrito groups (Benjamin 1973: viii;
Brosius 1991: 132; Dallos 2011; Endicott and Bellwood 1991; Rambo 1979a).
But, as Hutterer (1983: 176) points out, hunter-gatherers are not likely to accept
new subsistence techniques unless “they are seen as desirable and advantageous
in a given ecological situation.”