Sacred Bonds: Ritual, Identity, and Nationhood

Abstract

This dissertation examines how rituals shape national belonging in ethnically diverse societies. Existing research on nationalism and minority integration emphasizes modernization, political recognition, economic competition, and ethnopolitical inequality. I argue that these explanations are incomplete without attention to ritual processes. Shared religion does not automatically produce cross-ethnic solidarity or attachment to the nation-state. Its integrative power depends on ritual intensity: repeated participation, bodily co-presence, shared emotional focus, collective symbols, and affective commitment. The first chapter explains the Interactional Theory of Belonging and compares Iran and Turkey to show why intense Shi’i rituals generate stronger cross-ethnic national attachment than less intense Sunni rituals. The second chapter uses Iran as a comparative-historical within-case study, showing that Reza Shah’s suppression of public Shi’i rituals and promotion of secular Persian-centered ceremonies weakened cross-ethnic belonging among Azerbaijani Turks, while later periods of mixed-mode ritualism strengthened national attachment through intense Shi’i ritual practice. The third chapter examines Turkey as a low-intensity ritual case, showing why shared Sunni Islam failed to produce durable belonging between Turks and Kurds and how Kurdish counter-rituals emerged against state-managed religious authority. The fourth chapter tests the theory quantitatively using survey data from Iran and Turkey. The findings show that ritual participation is associated with stronger national identity, but only intense, embodied, and cross-cutting rituals reduce ethnic gaps in belonging. The dissertation contributes to the sociology of nationalism, religion, ethnicity, and culture by showing that rituals are not merely symbolic expressions of identity; they are interactional mechanisms that generate solidarity, mask domination, and shape the boundaries of national belonging.