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individuals to give priority to one identification marker over another. Indeed, according
to Eriksen (1995:435), individual and collective identities change both situationally and
historically.
Social identity theory diverges from mere individual cognition and refers to one’s
self-definition that arises from an awareness of one’s place in society and holds that
individuals seek to maximize their self-esteem and that one crucial way of doing so is to
strive to achieve positive social identities (see Tajfel, 1981). Moreover, social identity
theory “provides a sophisticated framework for understanding intergroup relations…at its
core lies a series of propositions about social categorization…and social comparison”
(Billig, 2003:234). Accordingly, individuals attempt to associate with perceived “high
status groups”, especially ones where the chance of being removed is slight (Hechter,
2000:99). Social identities are labels that individuals assign to themselves when they
claim membership in a social category that they perceive as connected to their cultural
history and present behavior (Laitin, 1998:16). This tacit ingroup-outgroup
categorization is “more than mere cognitive categorization; it carries emotional
significance as well” (Brewer and Brown, 1999:559). The need for identity is a
byproduct of individual efforts to satisfy basic human needs, which include psychological
factors and in this religion often serves more comprehensively than other repositories of
cultural meaning that contribute to the construction and maintenance of individual and
group identities and define the broadest range of possible relationships – to God, the self,
others, and friends and enemies (Seul, 1999:558). And with regard to nationalism, the
concept “emphasizes the social comparison that derogates out-groups in the aspects of
feelings of national superiority and idealization… [and] among people who tend to
Convention