Gift and market in the Chinese religious economy

Bibliographic Data

ID5157870
AuthorsDavid A Palmer (0000-0003-0884-995X, University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume41
Issue4
Pages569-594
Publication date2011-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0048-721X • E-ISSN: 1096-1151
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0048721x.2011.616703
OpenAlexW2105109503
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited48

Religious market theory has figured prominently in recent scholarly debates in the social scientific study of religion in China. This article argues that the existence of 'religious markets' should not be assumed as axiomatic but should be investigated as concrete social processes, distinguishing between market and non-market relations. Based on field research among popular religious and spiritual groups in China and drawing on the literature of economic anthropology, the author proposes an alternative model of a 'religious gift economy' made up of gifting exchanges between humans and between gods and humans. Five ethnographic cases from China illustrate the operation and coexistence of gift and market exchanges. In contemporary China, there is a tendency towards an increasing marketisation of religion, with a simultaneous growth of religious movements explicitly offering non-market forms of sociality. Rather than subsuming all exchanges under the blanket concept of the market, studies of religion must be attentive to the distinct logics of different models of exchange

Sociality · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology

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