Research design employed in this study refers to the philosophical views and assumptions that are fundamental to qualitative research and articulates those assumptions in research. The approach of this study focuses on the economic phenomenology of reciprocity and social value in tongkonan economy. Phenomenological studies describe the general meaning of some individuals to their various "life experiences" in relation to the concept or phenomenon in which they experience phenomena, the main purpose of phenomology is to reduce individual experience to phenomenon into a description of the essence or the universal essence of the understanding of attributes typical of something, Van Manen 1990 in (Creswell 2015: 105). For this purpose it identifies the phenomenon of "object" from human experience (Van Manen 1990: 163) such as a party of tuna signs and solo ceremonies' ceremonies that are phenomenal with reciprocal activities occurring in saroan at the time of their concentrated practice. The result of this study shows that the implementation of the reciprocity economy in the life of Torajan people has been going on since from ancient times through the ancestors passed on to the children and their grandchilds originated from families in tongkonan. The other result of this study is that the success of the people, Toraja family and Toraja community in living this life can not be separated from the existence of the agile Toraja to work honestly and faithfully and full of responsibility in maintaining good relationships with others as based on the philosophy of life of his life.