Understanding History and Sources

Meaning of History

• The study of past events presented in chronological order and with explanation.
• A narrative with a purpose.
• A story with meaning.
• Individuals who write about history are called Historians
• The practice of historical writing is called Historiography

Sources of History

• Classified into two categories: Primary and Secondary Sources.
• Primary sources are testimony of an eyewitness, either participants or witnesses, produced by a contemporary of the event it narrates.
• Primary Sources include: Eyewitness accounts, diaries, letters, legal documents, official documents (government or private), photographs.
• Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources.
• Secondary sources are one or more steps removed from the event.
• Examples of Secondary Sources: History textbooks, printed materials (serials, periodicals which interpret previous research).

General kinds of Historical Sources

• Documents (published and unpublished, including books, magazines, journals, travelogues, transcriptions of speeches, manuscripts, archival materials, memoirs, diaries).
• Archaeological Records (fossils, artifacts).
• Oral and Video Accounts.

Visual Sources

• Maps indicate locations, topography, trade routes, travel routes, structural build-up.
• Photographs reflect social conditions of historical realities and everyday life, give us visual ideas of places, historical events, and people.
• Sketches, drawings, paintings are visual representations based on the artist’s expression or interpretation of events and ideas, which become useful historical sources when we want to know or understand the context of the period in which they are made.
• Cartoons for political expression or propaganda indicate the temper of the times.

Object and Artifacts

• The Manunggul Jar is an elaborately designed burial jar with anthropomorphic figures on top of the cover that represent souls sailing to the afterworld in a death boat.
• The Manunggul jar was declared a National Cultural Treasure.
• The Callao Man (67,000 years old) is the oldest human fossil remains found in the Philippines. It was discovered in 2007 at the Callao Caves in Penablanca, Cagayan Valley.
• The Calatagan, Batangas burial site yielded 505 burials and 521 associated ceramics, porcelains, and stoneware jars from China, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as hundreds of local earthenware and iron tools.
• The Asian tradeware ceramics of the site date to the early to mid-Ming Dynasty (14th-15th centuries AD).

Historical Criticism

• To be used as evidence in history, a source must be evaluated for authenticity and credibility.
• External Criticism focuses on the problem of authenticity.
• Internal Criticism focuses on the problem of credibility.

External Criticism

• The problem of authenticity: To spot fabricated, forged, faked documents, distinguish a hoax or misrepresentation.
• Tests of Authenticity:
  • Determine the date of the document to see whether they are anachronistic (pencils did not exist before the 16th century).
  • Determine the author (handwriting, signature, seal).
  • Anachronistic style (idiom, ortography, punctuation).
  • Anachronistic reference to events (too early, too late, too remote).
  • Provenance or custody (determines its genuineness).
  • Semantics (determining the meaning of a text or word).
  • Hermeneutics (determining ambiguities).

Internal Criticism

• The problem of credibility: To determine if the relevant particulars in the document are credible.
• Verisimilar – as close as what really happened from a critical examination of best available sources.
• Tests of Credibility:
  • Identification of the author (to determine his reliability; mental processes, personal attitudes).
  • Determination of the approximate date (handwriting, signature, seal).
  • Ability to tell the truth (nearness to the event, competence of witness, degree of attention).
  • Willingness to tell the truth (to determine if the author consciously or unconsciously tells falsehoods).
  • Corroboration (historical facts – particulars which rest upon the independent testimony of two or more reliable witnesses).

Colonial Historiography

• Period viewed as either darkness or backwardness (Spaniards), or advancement or enlightenment (Americans).
• Filipinos were perceived as “barbaric” under Spain and “civilized” under America.
• Jose Rizal annotated Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.
• Filipinos perceived their colonial past as being maltreated by “wicked Spain” and rescued by “benevolent America”.

Philippine Historiography After World War II

• Teodoro Agoncillo pioneered nationalist historiography by highlighting the role of the Filipino reformists and revolutionaries from 1872.
• “Lost history” refers to the history of Filipino resistance against Spanish rule that Agoncillo uncovered.
• Renato Constantino wrote “people's history".
• Zeus Salazar developed the "Pantayong Pananaw" (from-our-point-of-view perspective).
• Reynaldo Ileto wrote "history from below".
• Samuel Tan mainstreamed the role and relevance of Filipino Muslims in the country’s national history.

Characteristics of Contemporary Philippine Historiography

• Colonial Histories
• Emphasis on Lowland Christianized Filipinos.
• Political Narratives.
• Patriarchal Orientation.
• Elite-centric Perspectives.

This quiz explores the fundamental concepts of history, including its definition, the roles of historians, and the key categories of historical sources. Learn the difference between primary and secondary sources and discover examples of each. Delve into the importance of historiography and its impact on our understanding of the past.