MEANING AND RELEVANCE OF HISTORY

SOURCES OF HISTORY
• HISTORIOGRAPHY
o The historian endeavors to reconstruct
HISTORIOGRAPHY
as much of the past of mankind as he
HISTORICAL METHOD
can.
• WHAT IS HISTORY? o Historian must be sure that his records
o Everything that happened in the past. really come from the past and are in
o An account of the past. fact what they seem to be and that his
o In short, history is both the past and the imagination is directed towards
study of the past. recreation and not creation.
o Derived from the Greek word historia, o These limits distinguish history from
meaning “inquiry”, “knowledge from fiction, poetry, drama and fantasy.
inquiry” or “judge” o The imaginative reconstruction of the
o Systematic account for a set of natural past from the data derived by that
phenomena, whether or not process is called historiography (the
chronological ordering was a factor in writing of history)
the account.
- Aristotle, Greek Philosopher • SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS
o Equivalent Latin word “Scientia”, came o Positivism (NO DOCUMENT, NO
to be used to designate non- HISTORY
chronological systematic accounts of o Post-colonialism
natural phenomena. o Annales School of History
o The word history was reserved usually o Philippine Historiography
for accounts of phenomena (human • SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS
affairs) in chronological order. o Positivism - the school of thought that
o Common definition, “the past of emerged between 18th and 19th
mankind.” century. Requires empirical and
observable evidence before one can
• Science which first investigates and then claim that particular knowledge is true
records in their causal relations and - NO DOCUMENT, NO HISTORY
developments such as past human events. o Postcolonialism – is a school that
o Definite in time emerged in the early 20th century when
o Social in nature formerly colonized nation grappled with
o Socially significant the idea of creating their identities and
understanding their societies against
• THREE CONCEPTS OF HISTORY the shadows of their colonial past.
1) history-activity ▪ TWO THINGS IN WRITING
2) history-as-record HISTORY:
3) history-as-historiography (1) to tell the history of
their nation that will
• WHY STUDY HISTORY? highlight their identity, free
o Ignorance of history deprive us to from that of colonial
comprehend about the past. discourse and knowledge,
o An examination of the past can tell us a (2) to criticize the methods,
great deal about how we came to be effects and idea of
who we are. colonialism
o Lessons of history/the past o Annales School of History - is a school
of history born in France that
challenged the canons of history.
 Annales scholars like Lucien Febvre, Howell and Prevenier, From
Marc Bloch, Fernand Braudel and Reliable
Jacques Le Goff studied other subjects An Introduction to Historical Method
in a historical manner. o Tangible remains of the past.
- Annales thinkers married history -Anthony Brundage, Going to
with other disciplines like Sources
geography, anthropology,
archeology and liguistics. • SOURCES
o Philippine Historiography - underwent - Historians has to use many
several changes since the pre-colonial materials that are not in books.
period until the present. Filipino Where these are archaeological,
historian, Zeus Salazar introduced the epigraphical, or numismatical
new guiding philosophy for writing and materials, he has to depend largely
teaching history: Pantayong Pananaw on museums.
(for us-from-us perspective). This - Where they are official records, he
perspective highlights the importance may have to search for them in
of facilitating an internal conversation archives, couthouses, government
and discourse among Filipinos about libraries, etc.
our own history, using the language - Where they are private papers not
that is understood by everyone. available in official collections, he
may have to look among the papers
• HISTORICAL METHOD - the process of critically of business houses, rooms of old
examining and analyzing the records and houses, the prized possessions of
survivals of the past. autography collectors, the records
of parish churches, etc.
• OBJECTIVITY AND SUBJECTIVITY IN HISTORY
o Objective o PRIMARY SOURCES - is a document or
The intention of acquiring detached and physical object which was written or
truthful knowledge independent of created during the time under study.
one’s personal reactions- a thing must - These sources were present during
be first an object; it must have an an experience or time period and
independent existence outside of the offer an inside view of a particular
human mind. event.
o Subjective - FOUR CATEGORIES OF PRIMARY
Inferior to objective knowledge, SOURCES:
illusory, based upon personal ➢ Written sources
considerations, and hence either untrue ➢ Oral Testimonies
or biased. ➢ Artifacts
➢ Images
• SOURCES OF HISTORY o SECONDARY SOURCES - interprets and
o Primary Sources analyzes primary sources
o Secondary Sources - may have pictures, quotes or
graphics of primary sources in
• HISTORICAL SOURCES them.
o Sources - an OBJECT from the past or • PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES
TESTIMONY concerning the past on •Written and oral sources are divided into two
which historians depend in order to kinds: primary and secondary
create their own depiction of the past. • Primary Source - it is the testimony of
an eyewitness, or of a witness by any other of
 the senses, or of a mechanical device - the one ➢ Government documents
who/that which was present at the events he or (reports, bills, proclamations,
it tells (eyewitness). ordinances, executive/office
• Secondary Source must thus have been orders, hearings, etc)
produced by a contemporary of the events it ➢ Patents
narrates. It does not, however, need to be ➢ Technical reports
original in the legal sense of the word original - ➢ Scientific journal articles
that is, the very document (usually the first reporting experimental
written draft) whose contents are the subject of research results.
discussion. o Primary
➢ Autobiography and memoirs
➢ Diaries, personal letters and
• DISTINCTION BETWEEN PRIMARY AND OTHER correspondence
ORIGINAL SOURCES: ➢ Interviews, surveys and
Original: fieldwork
➢ It contains fresh and creative ideas. ➢ Internet communications on
➢ It is not translated from the languages email, blogs, litservs and
in which it was first written. newsgroups
➢ It is in its earliest, unpolished stage. ➢ Photographs, drawings and
➢ its text is the approved text, unmodified posters
and untampered. ➢ Works of art and literature
➢ It is earliest available source of the ➢ Books, magazine abd
information it provides. newspaper articles and ads
published at the time
It is best used by historians in only two ➢ Public opinion polls
senses: ➢ Sppeches and oral histories
1. To describe a source, unpolished, ➢ original documents (birth
uncopied, untranslated, as it issued from certificates, property deeds,
the hands of the authors (e.g. original draft trial transcripts)
of the Magna Carta) ➢ Research data, such as censu
statistics
2. A source that gives the earliest available ➢ Official and unofficial records of
information (origin) regarding the question organization and government
under investigation because the earlier agencies
sources have been lost. o Secondary
➢ Bibliographies
➢ Bibliographical works
• DISTINCTION BETWEEN PRIMARY AND OTHER ➢ Reference books, including
ORIGINAL SOURCES: dictionaries, encyclopedias
“primary sources need not be original in either and atlases
of these two ways. They need be “original” ➢ Articles from magazines,
only in the sense of underived or first hand as journals, and newspaper
to their testimony.” after the event
o Primary ➢ Literature reviews and
➢ of all kinds, such as tools, coins, news articles (e.g. movie
potsherds, clothing, furniture, review & book reviews)
etc ➢ History books and other
➢ Audio recordings, DVD’s and popular or scholarly books
video recordings
 ➢ Works of criticism and • DOCUMENT
interpretation In history, used in several senses:
➢ Commentaries and treatises 1. used to mean written source of
➢ Textbooks historical information as contrasted
• “ARTIFACTS AS SOURCES OF HISTORY” with oral testimony or with artifacts,
o ARTIFACTS pictorial survivals, and archaeological
- objects, other than words, that the remains.
historian can study. But they are 2. Reserved for only official and state
never the happenings or the papers such as treaties, laws, grants,
events themselves, but rather deeds, etc.
results of events. Such as potsherd, 3. Contained in the word
coin, ruin, manuscripts, book, “documentation”, which, as used by the
portarit, stamp, piece of wreckage, historian among others, signifies any
strand of hair, or other process of proof based upon any kind
archaelogical or anthropological source whether written, oral, pictorial
remains. and archaeological.
- Artifacts or documents, they are
Document becomes synonymous with
raw materials out of which history
source, whether written or not, official or
may be written.
not, primary or not.
- Historical context can be given to
them only if they can be placed in a • THE “HUMAN” AND THE” PERSONAL”
human setting. DOCMUMENT
- Setback: infinity of other o Human Document - an account of
suppositions is possible. Without individual experience which reveals the
further evidence the human context individual’s actions as human agent and
of these artifacts can never be as a participant in social life.
recaptured with any degree of o Personal Document - any self-revealing
certainty. record that intentionally or
unintentionally yields information
• “ARTIFACTS AS SOURCES OF HISTORY” regarding the structure, dynamics and
➢ Historical truths can be derived functioning of the author’s mental life.
immediately from such materials.
➢ A piece of pottery was handwrought, • Sources of Data: Precolonial History
that a building was made of mortared ➢ Before 1926, there were 2 important
brick, that a manuscripts was written in archaeological undertakings in the
a cursive hand, that a painting was Philippines:
done in oils. 1. The first one was by Alfred
➢ Artifacts are not the essence of the Marche, a Frenchman in 1881.
study. He worked in the island or
➢ The historian deals with the dynamic or mariduque and explored other
genetic (the becoming) as well as static sites in the cental Philippines.
(the being or the become) and aims at Most of his collections were
being interpretative a well as surface finds and are now with
descriptive. Musee de l’homme in Paris and
➢ Without further evidence, the human other in Madrid. The other one
context of these artifacts can never be was by a German traveler
recaptured with any degree of Feodor Jagor reported having
certainty. encountered a priest in Naga,
Camarines Sur who collected
 artifacts from ancient of limestone burial jars in several caves
graveyards. located north of Kulaman Plateau while
2. The second systematic work in doing ethnographic work.
prehistoric archaelogy took ➢ In 1967, Alexander Spochr of the
place between 1922 and 1925. University of Pittsburgh carried out an
It was carried out by Carl Guthe archaelogical research in Sanga-Sanga
of the University of Michigan. Tawi-Tawi. Between 1968 to 1970
The purpose was to collect archaelogical diggings were also
Chinese ceramics exported to conducted in Cebu, Laguna, Palawan, in
the Philippines from China that Nueva Ecija, Batangas by Filipino
would aid in the reconstruction students and universities abroad.
of Philippine-Chinese ➢ Archaeological research and
relationship. excavations in 1970 shifted.
➢ From 1926 to the outbreak of the ➢ In 1973, Robert Maher of the
Second World War, much of what was University of Western Wisconsin
archaeologically known was the result returned to Ifugao to document the
of the pioneering work of Henry O. dates the scholars gave to the rice
Beyer. terraces. Radiocarbon-14 tests were
➢ Post-war excavations include the work performed on the site revealed a date
of Wilhelm Solheim II in Masbate island between 800±1000 BP. Feelix Keesing’s
from 1951-1953, Robert Fox and suggestion that the people of Central
Alfredo Evangelista both working in the Cordillera moved into the interior as a
National Museum of the Philippines result of Spanish pressure is challenged
undertook excavations in the caves of by Maher’s data as untenable, it also
Cagraray, Albay & Sorsogon. challenges Bayer’s conclusion that the
➢ After the WW2 there was an increase rice terraces were constructed about
interest in the prehistoric beginnings of 3000 BC.
the Philippines and later on, the ➢ Archaelogical diggings in Tabon and
University of the Philippines included other caves in Palawan done by the
systematic archaeology in their archaelogists of the National Museum
curriculum. was the most dramatic among others.
➢ The first extensive post-war ➢ Other promising archaeological sites
archaeological work was the Calatagan found in Cagayan Valley. Data from
diggings conducted by the National these sites excavated indicate in close
Museum of the Philippines from 1958 association of fossil remains of ancient
to 1962. E. Arsenio Manuel of the UP animals like elephas ans stegodons and
also conducted diggings in Marinduque. stone tools made by prehistoric men.
Other diggings and explorations in ➢ The Cagayan Valley theory was
southern regions of Bisayas and reinforced by the preliminary findings
Mindanao in the 1960s led by of the Ateneo de Manila University
anthropologists of the University of San group in the Lemery-Taal sites. It
Carlos and Siliman University. appears that the group has uncovered
➢ In 1963-64, Marcelito Maceda of USC series of stratified sites, each
assisted the National Museum representing atleast four cultural
conducted excavations in Kulaman periods in Philippine prehistory. These
Plateau and recovered a number of periods span a development of culture
limestone burial jars. A graduate in the area over at least 40,000 years.
student from Siliman University, Samuel ➢ In the Philippines, the dating techniques
Briones, reported in 1966 the presence used may categorized into 2: (1)
 traditional technique - which
establishes dates on the basis of
historical records, nature of artifacts
and geological layers where the
artifacts are found; (2) modern
technique - which employs carbon-14
determinations of organic samples
recovered in archaeological sites.

• Persisting Problem
• Advent of antique collectors and
pothunters’ whole collection of
prehistoric materials for sale
(abroad/locally) has caused damaged to
archaeological sites.
• Pothunting is the term used for
unsystematic diggings of prehistoric
sites by private collectors and untrained
individuals. Such activity contributes to
the destruction of the only source of
evidence about man’s early lifeways in
our country.
• Lack of support for systematic
excavations.
• Systematic fieldwork takes time and is
often very expensive.
 ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN PHILIPPINE • External Criticism
HISTORY ➢ Used to determine the authenticity or
genuineness of a historical document.
➢ factors that may have influenced the
production of a document: authorship,
time, place, purpose and circumstances
or composition and what part of the
document is true to the original.
➢ Useful in internal criticism.
• External Criticism
1. Who was the author?
2. What are his qualification as a reporter?
3. What were his special qualification and
LAGUNA COPPER PLATE disqualifications as the reporter of the
Discovered in 1989 matters he treated?
Lumbang River, Lumban municipality, 4. How soon, after the event, was the
Laguna province 10th century A.D.
documentary written?
5. How the document written from memory,
afte consultation with others, after checking
the facts or combining earlier trial drafts?
6. How is the document related to other
documents?
7. Original source? Wholw or part?
8. If part, what are the borrowed? How
credible are the borrowed?
9. How accurately is the borrowing done?
10. 10.How is the material changed? How it is
used?
MANUNGGUL JAR
Site Investigation bet. 1962-65 in
Lipuun Point, 890 – 710 B.C. • Purpose of External Criticism To detect the
8following:
• Forgeries and hoaxes
9• Authorship, time, and filiation of
0documents
• Incorrect borrowings
-• Inventions and distortions
7
•
1Internal Criticism
0 ➢ The process of determining the true
B meaning and value of statements
OTON DEATH MASK contained in a document.
1960’s San Antonio, . ➢ It is positive, if efforts are made to
Oton, Iloilo
14th-15th century AD
C discover the true meaning of the
contents of a document,
8
9 ➢ It is negative, if efforts are exerted in
0 finding reasons for disbelieving the
contents of the document.
-
7
1
• Internal Criticism o Does the author want to please some
1. What did the author mean by this particular particular individual, group or even the
statement? What is its real meaning as general public?
distinguished from its literal meaning? o Are exaggerations or embellishments in
2. Was the statement made in good faith? the form of literary artifices and
3. Had the author interest in deceiving the rhetorical flourishes employed to
reader? produce the desired effects?
4. Was the author under pressure?
5. Was he influenced by sympathy or • PAST
antipathy? o Purpose: What was the object used for?
6. Did vanity influence him? What does the text say? What does the
7. Was he influenced by public opinion? picture show?
8. Is there evidence of literary or dramatic o Author: Who created this?
motives to distort the truth? o Slant: Is there bias? What is the point of
• Internal Criticism view or frame of reference of the
▪ Was the statement accurate? Or more
o
source?
Time Period: When was it created?
particularly
What is the historical context or what
▪ Was the author a poor observer was happening at the time it was
because of mental defect or created?
abnormality?
▪ Was the author situation badly in time • IS HISTORY A SCIENCE OR ONE OF THE
and place to observe? HUMANITIES?
➢ Scientific and historical methods are
▪ Was the author negligent or systematic, sequential, logical and
indifferent? progress in definite steps. Scientific
▪ Was the fact of such nature could not method is not peculiar to the sciences; it
be directly observed? is also applicable to history and the
social sciences.
▪ Was the author a mere witness or • “HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE LIMITED BY
trained observer? INCOMPLETENESS OF THE RECORDS”
▪ When it appears that the author was ➢ The past of mankind for the most part is
not the original observer, it is necessary beyond recall - the incompleteness of
to determine the truth and accuracy of records.
the source of his information. ➢ “Most of human affairs happen without
leaving vestiges or records of any kind
• Test of Truthfulness and Honesty behind them. The past, having
o What is the personal vested interest of happened, has perished forever with
the author? only occasional traces.”
o To what race, nation, party, region, Only part of what was observed in the past remembered by
sect, social level, economic group or those who observed it;
profession doe sthe observer belong,
only a part of what recorded has survived;
which may introduce bias or prejudice?
o To what extent is the statement a only part of what has survived to the historian’s
conventional form where set of attention;
formulas rather than true sentiments
only a part of what has come to their attention is
are expressed? credible;
o Is there evidence of vanity or boasting?
only of a part of what is credible has been grasped; and
only a part of what has been grasped can be expounded or
narrated by the historian
THE OBSERVED
REMEMBERED
HUMAN RECORDED
SURVIVED

PAST HISTORIAN’S
ATTENTION
CREDIBLE
GRASPED

EXPOUNDED
AND
NARRATED BY
HISTORIAN

• CONCEPTS OF HISTORY
➢ Concept of Change
➢ Concept of Continuity
➢ Concept of Multiple Causation
➢ Concept of Significance
➢ Concept of Sources
➢ Concept of Evidence
➢ Concept of Framework
➢ Concept of Context

• THINGS TO REMEMBER
➢ There is no single understanding of
truth in history.
➢ Different historians reach different
conclusions about the same period,
event or issue.
➢ History is composed of competing and
conflicting arguments and viewpoints
and is always changing.