From Spitual To Concrete Dedication Economy

Reciprocity, Redistribution, Market Exchange are three modes ofsocial integration(“Patterns of Intergration”) for each communitymembers in the internal economy, and their operating systems andregulating mechanisms are different from each other. In non-marketeconomy societies, the exchange pattern of the internal community is acultural phenomenon which is integrated into the various complicatednon-economic factors.Integration pattern of different social fields notonly can reflect the local community members’ characteristics and needs,but also show the cultural implications behind this pattern.The Jing Catholics in SanDe village, Dongxing, Guangxi usuallydonate their money to the Church in the ceremonies of the feast day, andthey also dedicate themselves in other non-economic ways in dailylife.They called their donation AiJin or dedication. Either theparticipating subjects, the reason as well as the form of the dedication, orthe Catholics’ psychological changes during dedication and the use of thededication funds, show the external influence and the internal logic ofdedication in different angles. Besides, they also reveal the similaritiesand differences between dedication and reciprocity, market exchange.Dedication is not just a religious consciousness from divine spiritlevel, bus also secular and gradually institutionalized economicphenomenon. Dedication economy is a social phenomenon which is theresult of interaction of historical development, social system and culturalenvironment of SanDe village, and is the redistribution system thatembed into its history, society culture and other non-economic factors.Institutionalized dedication system has influenced the structure of socialrelations between SanDe community to a certain extent, and integrate thecommunity. The substantial(substantivist) meaning of dedication economy is that it forms a relatively stable complex which is integratedinto the various complicated non-economic factors during the interchangebetween the Catholics and social environment. For SanDe Catholics,economic rationality and religion belief can co-exist in harmoniously inthe real world, and religion belief is more like a way of life.