Elegamt appearance of a Subordiated population in the social life: case study of a rite in sabzevar

As much as cultural specialists there are definitions of ritual in the ethnographyliterature. In spite of this variety and disagreement, however some convergences have been emerged recently. One accepted common notion is the social nature of rituals so that it can be said that rituals are community oriented and social constructed phenomena. In this regard investigations of religious rituals which have not been originated from religion- and are basically social categories- are informative and useful for studying social structure. Nakhl ritual is hold during Moharram mourning in some central and eastern regions of Iran. Through ethnographic method this paper studies cultural and ritual implications of Nakhl ritual in Sheshtamad town. Results show that Nakhg ritual provides people specially lower status ones with participation opportunity to achieve social prestige.