Primary and Secondary Sources

Historical Background of the Document

• History involves studying past people and events and is common to all human societies and cultures.
• Human beings are always interested in understanding and interpreting the past.

Primary Sources

• A primary source is a document, recording, artifact, or source of information from the time under study.
• Primary sources usually come from a source with direct knowledge of events, serving as an original source of information.

Kinds and Repositories of Primary Sources

• Published documents are for public distribution, including newspapers, magazines, books, reports, government documents, laws, court decisions, literary works, posters, maps, and advertisements.
• Unpublished documents are kept private, making them difficult to locate and access, such as personal letters that may have confidential information.
• Published documents encompass items like books, music albums, and films accessible to the public in formats.
• Unpublished works include draft manuscripts or personal journals kept private by the creator and not publicly distributed.

Oral History

• Oral history includes literature based on first-person accounts using an interview
• It can be published in books/articles, integrated into museum exhibits/TV programs, or stored in archives/libraries.
• Oral history includes unwritten sources

Artworks and Artifacts

• Artifacts are objects made by a human being and include art, tools, and clothing.
• Artifacts can also refer to remains such as pottery or glassware shards.
• Artwork is a physical object with aesthetic or conceptual value, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations, drawings, collages, graffiti, and digital creations.

The National Archives of the Philippines (NAP)

• The NAP was established through Republic Act No. 9470 on May 21, 2007.
• The NAP stores, preserves, conserves, and makes available records, papers, periodicals, books, and other materials selected for permanent reservation.
• The NAP holds about 60,000,000 archival documents, including a Spanish Collection with about 13,000,000 manuscripts from the 16th to 19th centuries and 400 titles on Philippine history under Spanish, American, and Japanese rule.

The National Library of the Philippines (NLP)

• The NLP is the repository of the printed and recorded cultural heritage and other intellectual, literary, and information sources.
• Established on August 12, 1887, and named The Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas.

The National Museum of the Philippines (NM)

• The NM operates as an educational, scientific, and cultural institution.
• It includes the National Museum of Fine Arts, Anthropology, Natural History, the Planetarium, and other branches nationwide.
• Its collection covers fine arts, archeology, ethnography, and natural history.

Provenance

• Provenance refers to the origin or history of something, telling where it comes from and how it changed.
• Provenance includes records of ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
• In books, this includes signatures, notes, bookplates, and stamps.
• Knowing the provenance helps verify an item's authenticity, appreciate its history, and fosters a connection to history.

Intended Audience

• The intended audience is the individual or group targeted to view or witness something.
• Some sources address the intended audience specifically.

Things to Remember

• Type of source involved
• Identify creator involved
• Time of creation

Writing a Diary

• Letters begin with "Dear" including the recipient name, stating audience by source.

Famous Diary written by Anne Frank

• Anne Frank began writing her diary when she was 13 during World War II.
• Published by Frank's father, original audience was Frank herself.

Some Common Audiences

• Academic journals and textbooks target university academics and students.
• Books and newspapers aim for the general public.
• Diaries are for the authors themselves.
• Government documents are for government employees.
• Letters address the recipient.

Intended audience

• It affects how past/present stories are told and understood.
• Recognizing the intended audience clarifies why a story was told a certain way and its impact.

Corroborating Sources in History

• Corroboration verifies the accuracy and reliability of historical sources.
• It is crucial for sound and trustworthy conclusions.
• It's essential for reliable historical interpretations.

Ways to Corroborate Sources

• Cross-referencing compares information to identify inconsistencies.
• Triangulation uses evidence from three or more sources to validate findings.

Source Analysis

• Consider author's perspective, biases, and reasons for writing.
• Assess the time proximity to the events being described and the potential for bias or distortion.
• Assess source reliability based on its type: primary, secondary, or tertiary.

Contextualization

• Historical context involves placing the source within its historical background.
• Cultural context involves looking at cultural/social factors influencing the author or content.

Internal Consistency

• Check for logical coherence (absence of contradictions)
• Assess support of evident for it's claims

External Consistency

• Comparing the source with other sources allows discrepancies or inconsistencies to be identified.
• Consult with experts in order to assess the source's reliability and accuracy

Analyzing a Source's Purpose

• Author's background and affiliations assesses bias based on the author's beliefs / experiences.
• Understand author's qualifications and expertise

Context and Time Period

• Understand events/social conditions during historical context
• Understand how time period influence perspective or content

Target Audience (Audience)

• Identify the group the author aims to reach.
• To achieve goals with the reader (for example, to persuade or inform).
• Emotion analysis is the use of language and tone.
• Identifying rhetoric persuades the the reader.

Purpose

• Stated Purpose: Explicit statements
• Implicit Purpose: Assess content, tone and context

Supporting Evidence

• Assess quality and relevance of evidence
• Identifying bias involves how evidence is presented

Bias

• When perspectives are unbalanced

Bias in a Source

• Extreme Bias: Extremely in favor or against (pro and anti)

Detecting Bias

• Carefully look at what the source suggests.
• Extreme word choices in written soruces

Visual Source

• If the depiction is clearly exaggerated

Extreme positivity

• Events and people described are very positive

Extreme negativity

• Language describing events and people are very negative

Silence

• Intentionally missing important things from sources

Obvious Errors

• Falsities as revealed by alternate sources

Proving Bias

• Direct, representative quotes
• Explain creative perspective and motivations for bias
• Acknowledge bias doesn't automatically mean wrong

Perspective is the point of view

• How the creator depicts events

• Different people understand their own values, beliefs, etc.

• Even modern historians interpret the past based on their own individual perspectives.

• Focus in on the creator:

• Who is their nationality?

• What do they practice?

• What religious beliefs?

• What is their educational background?

Historical context

• It helps us understand that events in the past occurred when people held difference beliefs than what we consider to be true today.
• Determine when/where a source was created to help identify the context
• What is the exact year? The exact date?
• What occurred at the time?

Understand the Details

• Read to better identify language, ideas, and other terminology

Cause and effect

• What happened when events unfolded

Relevance

• Why is it considered important or new?

Criteria for importance (acronym: NAME)

• N (Novelty)
• A (Applicability)
• M (Memory)
• E (Effects)
• Novelty describes something unique.
• For example, Barack Obama was the first black president.

Applicability

• History is related to something similar happening in the present.
• For example, many people were unaware of the the Spanish Flu until the 2020 pandemic.

Memory

• People become significant for their time-dependent contributions

Effects

• Events are significant based on how many were affected at the time and even after.

Gavrilo Princip

• Gavrilo Princip was a significant figure because his actions caused World War I and World War II.

History

• It is a mix tape of change and continuity to better understand how societies developed.

Change helps drive history:

• Society shifts
• Economy transforms
• Politics are altered
• Culture changes
• Advances in Technology

Continuity is an essential foundation

• Heritage preserves beliefs and customs
• Principles and values exist from the past
• Instill structure

Examples of Change and Continuity

• The industrial revolution changed societies, but values remained.
• Economic and political change occurred during colonialism, as did the preservation of indigenous traditions.
• Globalization has made the world more interconnected with national identities that also remain strong.