There is a general agreement that nationalism as a mass movement is a modern phenomenon. At the same time there is also strong evidence that the ruling elites of early modern Europe view of the world was coloured by what has been called patriotic, protonational or national identities. What is in dispute, or simply unanswered, is the extent to which such views had any significance for the general populace before the nineteenth century. This project proposes to study forms and expressions of popular identities in early modern Sweden from early 16th century to early 19th century. The question is not if the subjects used ethnic or national epithets. It is well known that they did, instead the context and the forms of expressions of identity will be in focus. Using a cultural historic method, the project will examine popular discourses of territorial, social, religious and bodily identities and their connection to ethnicity, realm and nation. The sources consist of texts - mainly court protocols and petitions to local, regional and national authorities - and of artefacts, as inscriptions, symbols and pictures in, above all, regional churches. Through its bottom-up perspective, the project will contribute to and problematise the lively international debate about the historical roots of nationalism and its penetration into the minds of the subjects of the early modern society.