Study On The Labor Mode And Social Solidarity Of Dai Village

Common beliefs and emotions are the spiritual link of social solidarity,which can link the relationship between individuals and individuals,and between individuals and collectives,it can help people get rid of the negative influence of egoism,and encourage people to join the village community.Ma Bang Village is a traditional Dai village in the southwest corner of Yunnan Province.People have lived in the same geographical and cultural space from generation to generation.Cooperation and mutual assistance are the needs of every family to safeguard their rights for survival and development.The acquaintance society of “born,grew up and died in this country" is the essential feature of Chinese countryside.Mabang people have the first-mover advantage of unity due to their interwoven consanguinity,geographical proximity and mutual assistance of industry.Common belief and ethnic characteristics of the village embody the collectivism spirit.Various kinds of practical activities and many festivals have fostered the spirit of solidarity,such as water-splashing festival,flower-picking festival and flower-offering festival,or some collective activities like Gaguang dance,gyro game and play swing.This spirit of solidarity takes the whole village as a unit,which is generally manifested mutual assistance at the family level and the joint participation in collective activities.Furthermore,it is mainly reflected in the employment mode of Mabang people,especially in the enthusiasm of changing labor in agricultural production and collective voluntary labor.Exchange labor of agricultural production and collective voluntary labor are traditional ways of employment that depends on the relationship between acquaintances in the local society.The exchange of workers is based on the principle of reciprocity and cooperation,and it is an active strategy for small farmers to make greater use of family labor.It is also a reflection of the interpersonal relationship in the local society,which condenses the unity of small groups in the village and serves as the link between individuals and individuals.Voluntary labor is suitable for collective production and construction,which directly shows that villagers need to volunteer to work without remuneration.It is the link between the individual and the collective.Both the direct exchange of labor and the indirect exchange of labor do not involve the exchange of money,which mainly reflects people’s emotional interaction,shows unity within the village,and further promotes the unity of the whole society in return.With the development of market economy,the commercialized way of employing labor has grown rapidly in Mabangzhai.Based on the transformation from trandition to modernity,people often think that the community of village will disintegrate,and the new employees will disintegrate the traditional way of employment.Nowadays,Mabangzhai has a diversified combination of employment methods,which are respectively used in different fields and links.Voluntary labor embody the relationship between individuals and collectives,and both exchanging labor and employees reflect the relationship between people.The difference is that the change of labor is taken place between acquaintances,while employees mainly exist in a stranger society.Those employing methods do not conflict with each other in time and space,and their rise does not erode the exchange of labor and voluntary labor based on unity.That is to say,hired labor do not destroy the unity within the village and it also become an effective supplement to traditional employment.The study of employment mode and social relations and social solidarity is a classic subject of ethnology,anthropology and sociology.As a traditional employment mode based on emotional factors,labor change and voluntary labor can be regarded as two kinds of forces with market-oriented employment.The study found that after the traditional employment was impacted by market forces,new fields were occupied by employees,but employees did not eventually disintegrate the traditional employment mode,which was the inevitable result of the development of market economy and the paradox of Durkheim’s transformation from "mechanical solidarity" to "organic solidarity".In addition to the strong strength of the traditional labor itself,the main factors lie in the livelihood mode in the locality and the elasticity of time and space between the employees and the traditional labor.