This article discusses, with reference to the oral epic poetry of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, how the performance of oral epics can have ritual dimensions, even in a purely secular and seemingly non-ritual context. It is argued that the performance of oral epics is a particular type of communicative event, of which the comparatively rigid act sequence can be seen as being on a par with the patterning of ritual and that both events are meaningful in a similar way. It can be shown that in the performance of heroic epics, tribal and cultural origins are explored and that hence the primary function of epic is not entertainment but the search for ethnic and cultural identity.