Ritualized ethnic identity: Asian Indian immigrants in the southern plains

ABSTRACT This study examines identity construction among first-generation Asian Indian immigrants who reside in the Southern Plains region of the United States. Employing structural ritualization theory this study focuses on how three types of ritualized behaviors - regional-ethnic, pan-ethnic, and host - play a crucial role in constructing “multi-ritual” ethnic identity of Indian immigrants. In determining the rank or overall importance of ritualized symbolic practices (RSPs) we argue that the higher the rank of a practice, the greater its impact on the cognitions and behaviors of immigrants. The results of this qualitative study indicate that in the process of ethnic identity formation, Indian immigrants negotiate with their distinctive pan-Indian RSPs, retain and alter their regional-Indian RSPs, and bring their ethnicity into the mainstream society. This study contributes to the micro-sociological analysis of ethnic identity and enhances our empirical understanding of an understudied Asian Indian immigrant community.