儲蓄互助社(Credit Union)是台灣規模最大，成立最久的底層互助金融機制。該組織自1964年設立，一直至1997年才正式取得法律地位。它解決無數原住民以及偏鄉地區小額貸款的需求，也被稱為原住民的撲滿。本文從社會連帶的理論角度出發，探究儲互社如何形成強而有力的中介母群體，其宗教、群族與生活網絡如何高度重疊並產生作用。本研究採用次級資料分析和半結構訪談法，並以滾雪球抽樣方式累積訪問對象，針對台灣東部某原住民部落進行參與式觀察。研究發現在1997年合法化之前，儲互社透過宗教體系與政府維持友好的關係，在非正式金融體系中取得地位；其次，其貨幣集中、交換並非追求經濟利益邏輯，而是以維生的互助自救為目的，因此形成兼顧人情關係與法律手段的催討方式；最後，儲蓄互助社結合群族、宗教、生活與家庭等網絡，組成貨幣交換的半封閉社群，有效處理社群和金融價值的衝突和危機。此種以中介團體作為支撐的合作經濟，也將成為日後台灣微型金融發展的重要模式。

The Credit Union is the largest scale and historically longest corporative financial institution for the lower classes in Taiwan. While set up in 1964, it was not recognized as a legal organization till 1997. It was called ”the piggy bank of aboriginal people” which solved the credit loan problem in indigenous and village areas. This paper investigates the social bond of the Taiwan credit union, and explores how the religious, ethnic and living relationships shape a strong network. The research used data collected from personal interviews, secondary organizational history and observation at an east Taiwan aboriginal village. First, the result found that credit union maintained a friendly relationship with government through the religious systems and informal financial systems. Second, its monetary accumulation and exchange was not for the interest of economic profits. Therefore the way of collection was operated by both social consideration and legal means. Finally, the semi-closed community was composed of religious, ethnic and living network that solved the conflict between social and financial value. This kind of cooperative economy sustained by intermediate groups should be an important model for micro-finance development in Taiwan.