INTRODUCTION TO
PHILIPPINE HISTORY
Calangian, Janelle
Bertulfo, Ailysa
Sablayan, Jasmine
Villanobos, Guillane Alexis
Let’s go back in time…
Meaning and Relevance of the
History
Definition of History
✣ Derived from the Greek word "Historia"
which means "inquiry or knowledge
acquired by investigation
✣ Is the study of past events
✣ Victor Hugo - "what is history? An echo of
the past in the future; a reflex from the
future on the past"
✣ Merriam Webster (2018)- "A chronological
record of significant events (such as those
affecting a nation or institution) often
including an explanation of their causes“
✣ Historiography refers to how, what, and
why history is written
Prehistory and History
✣ Prehistory refers to the period where
information of the past were recorded in
materials other than written document
which may not be understood by a
historian.
-History covers information derived from
largely written records of past experiences.
✣ Prehistory of the Philippines cover the
events until 21 April 900 the date indicated
on the LCI
✣ Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI) the
earliest or the first legal written document
recorded in the Philippines
✣ Old malay inscription in year 822 of the
Saka Era, the month of Waisaka, and the
fourth day of the waning moon which
corresponds to Monday, April 21, 900 AD
Why study History?
✣ According to Peter N. Stearns in 1998 with
the American Historical Association here are
the reasons why we study the history
1. History Helps us understand people and
societies
2. History Helps us understand change and how
the society we live in came to be
3. History contributes to moral understanding
4. History provides identity
5. Studying history is essential for good
citizenship
✣ According to Stern this are the
following skills that the students will
learn in studying history
1. The ability to assess evidence
2. The ability to assess conflicting
interpretations
3. Experience in assessing past
examples of change
HISTORICAL SOURCES
---- The Historian’s most important research
tools.
---- An object or testimony from the past
that contains important historical
information.
CATEGORIES OF
HISTORICAL SOURCES
Primary Sources
---- Those are original records or
contemporary accounts of certain
event by a people who have
actually participated, experienced
or witnessed it.
FERDINAND MARCOS’ SHORT CLIP
Another Examples:
✣ Testimonies
✣ Government Records
✣ Interviews
✣ Literature Pieces
✣ Photographs
SECONDARY SOURCES
✣ It explains a certain event of
the past through evaluation and
interpretation of the records
created during a historical
period.
✣ Historical resources which
studied a certain historical
subject.
Philippine History and Government
Another Examples:
✣ Journal Articles
✣ Political Commentary
✣ Textbooks
✣ Criticism of Art Works
Internal and External critism
Historical method
refers to the process of
probing primary sources that
will be used in writing history.
✣
✣
✣
✣
✣
✣
Gilbert J. Garraghan and Jean
Delanglez (1946)
source criticism asks the following
questions:
When was the source, written or
unwritten, produced?
Where was it produced?
By whom was it produced?
From what pre-existing material was it
produced?
In what original form was it produced?
What is the evidential value of its
contents?
✣ External Criticism
The first five questions are
considered to be part of
external criticism. Historians
determine the authenticity of
sources by examining the date,
locale, creator, analysis and
integrity of the historical
sources.
✣ Internal Criticism
The last question is treated as
internal criticism as it helps the
historians determine the
credibility of the source. It
studies the content of the
source to know its truthfulness
✣ Neuman (2013)
has explained the difference
between external and internal
criticism.
✣ One of the disputed documents
which may illustrate the
application of external and
internal criticism is the Code of
Kalantiaw.
✣
The Code was introduced as written by
Datu Kalantiaw of Negros in 1433.
However, in a study presented by William
Henry Scott, it was found out to be a hoax
– a forgery written by Jose E. Marco in
1913.
✣
Today, history books no longer include the
said Code. But Atty. Cecilio Duka, in
2018, has interestingly provided the 18
articles of the Code in his book, Struggle
for Freedom, to be critically examined by
the students and conclude its truthfulness.
For similar reasons and to feed our
curiosity here are the said laws:
✣ Article I - Ye shall not kill, neither shall ye steal
nor shall ye hurt the aged, lest ye incur the
danger of death. All those who this order shall
infringe shall be tied to a stone and drowned in a
river or in boiling water.
✣ Article II - Ye shall punctually meet your debt
with your headman. He who fulfills not, for the
first time shall be lashed a hundredfold, and If the
obligation is great, his hand shall be dipped
threefold in boiling water. On conviction, he shall
be flogged to death.
✣
✣
Article III - Obey ye: no one shall have wives that are
too young, nor shall they be more than what he can
take care of, nor spend much luxury. He who fulfils not,
obeys not, shall be condemned to swim three hours
and, for the second time, shall be scourged with spines
to death.
Article IV - Observe and obey ye: Let not the peace of
the graves be disturbed; due respect must be accorded
them on passing by caves and trees where they are.
He who observes not shall die by bites of ants or shall
be flogged with spines till death.
✣ Article V - Obey ye: Exchange in food must be
carried out faithfully. He who complies not shall
be lashed for an hour. He who repeats the act
shall, for a day be exposed to the ants.
✣ Article VI - Ye shall revere respectable places,
trees of known value, and other sites. He shall
pay a month's work, in gold or money, whoever
fails to do this; and if twice committed, he shall be
declared a slave
✣ Article VII - They shall die who kill trees of
venerable aspect; who at night shoot with arrows
the aged men and the women; he who enters the
house of the headman without permission; he
who kills a fish or shark or striped crocodile.
✣ Article VIII - They shall be slaves for a given time
who steal away the women of the headmen; he
who possesses dogs that bite the headmen; he
who burns another man's sown field.
✣ Article IX - They shall be slaves for a given time,
who sing in their night errands, kill manual birds,
tear documents belonging to the headmen; who
are evil-minded liars; who play with the dead.
✣ Article X - It shall be the obligation of every
mother to show her daughter secretly the things
that are lascivious, and prepare them for
womanhood; men shall not be cruel to their
wives, nor should they punish them when they
catch them in the act of adultery. He who
disobeys shall be torn to pieces and thrown to the
Caymans.
✣ Article XI - They shall be burned, who by force or
cunning have mocked at and eluded punishment,
or who have killed two young boys, or shall try to
steal the women of the old men (agurangs).
✣ Article XII - They shall be drowned, all slaves
who assault their superiors or their lords and
masters; all those who abuse their luxury; those
who kill their anitos by breaking them or throwing
them away.
✣ Article XIII - They shall be exposed to the ants for
half a day, who kill a black cat during the new
moon or steal things belonging to the headmen.
✣ Article XIV - They shall be slaves for life, who
having beautiful daughters shall deny them to the
sons of the headman, or shall hide them in bad
faith.
✣ Article XV - Concerning their beliefs and
superstitions: they shall be scourged, who eat bad
meat of respected insects or herbs that are
supposed to be good; who hurt or kill the young
manual bird and the white monkey.
✣ Article XVI - Their fingers shall be cut off, who
break wooden or clay idols in their olangangs and
places of oblation; he who breaks Tagalan's
daggers for hog killing, or breaks drinking vases.
✣ Article XVII - They shall be killed, who profane
places where sacred objects of their diwatas or
headmen are buried. He who gives way to the call
of nature at such places shall be burned.
✣ Article XVIII - Those who do
not cause these rules to be
observed, if they are headmen,
shall be stoned and crushed to
death, and if they are old men,
shall be placed in rivers to be
eaten by sharks and crocodiles.
✣ Garraghan and Delanglez,
historians also have presented the
following principles of source criticism for
determining reliability (Olden-Jørgensen,
1998 and Thurén, 1997):
- Human sources may be relics such as a
fingerprint; or narratives such as a statement
or a letter. Relics are more credible sources
than narratives.
- Any given source may be forged or
corrupted. Strong indications of the originality
of the source increase its reliability.
- The closer a source is to the event which it
purports to describe, the more one can trust
it to give an accurate historical description of
what actually happened.
- A primary source is more reliable than a
secondary source, which is more reliable
than a tertiary source, and so on.
- If a number of independent sources contain
the same message, the credibility of the
message is strongly increased.
- The tendency of a source is its
motivation for providing some kind
of bias. Tendencies should be
minimized or supplemented with
opposite motivations.
- If it can be demonstrated that the
witness or source has no direct
interest in creating bias then the
credibility of the message is
increased.
✣ Bernheim (1889) and Langlois &
Seignobos (1898)
have presented the following procedures
to examine contradictory sources:
1. If the sources all agree about an event,
historians can consider the event proved;
2. However, majority does not rule; even if
most sources relate events in one way, that
version will not prevail unless it passes the
test of critical textual analysis;
3. The source whose account can be
confirmed by reference to outside
authorities in some of its parts can be
trusted in its entirety if it is impossible
similarly to confirm the entire text;
4. When two sources disagree on a
particular point, the historian will prefer the
source with most "authority"—that is the
source created by the expert or by the
eyewitness;
5. Eyewitnesses are, in general, to be
preferred especially in circumstances where
the ordinary observer could have accurately
reported what transpired and, more
specifically, when they deal with facts known
by most contemporaries;
6. If two independently created
sources agree on a matter, the
reliability of each is measurably
enhanced;
7. When two sources disagree
and there is no other means of
evaluation, then historians take
the source which seems to accord
best with common sense.
✣ Primary sources
are mostly accounts of eyewitnesses. As
proposed above, they are generally
preferred. RJ Shafer had suggested that
we ask the following questions:
- Is the real meaning of the statement
different from its literal meaning? Are words
used in senses not employed today? Is the
statement meant to be ironic (i.e., mean
other than it says)?
- How well could the author observe the thing
he reports? Were his senses equal to the
observation? Was his physical location
suitable to sight, hearing, touch? Did he have
the proper social ability to observe: did he
understand the language, have other
expertise required (e.g., law, military); was he
not being intimidated by his wife or the secret
police?
- How did the author report and what was his
ability to do so?
- Do his statements seem inherently
improbable: e.g., contrary to human nature,
or in conflict with what we know?
- Remember that some types of information
are easier to observe and report on than
others.
- Are there inner contradictions in the
document?
✣ In some cases when there is no primary source
available to confirm the happening of one event or
history, indirect eyewitnesses or secondary
sources may be inquired from. In these cases,
Gottschalk has suggested to ask the following:
1. From whose primary testimony does the secondary
witness base his statements?
2.Did the secondary witness accurately report the
primary testimony as a whole?
3. If not, in what details did he accurately report the
primary testimony?
✣ Having reasonable answers from these
questions will give the historian a source,
which may be considered original and
reliable.
✣ Historians may also look into oral
traditions as a source of history. These
traditions, however, may only be
accepted if they satisfy the following
conditions:
✣ 1. Broad conditions:
a. The tradition should be supported by an
unbroken series of witnesses, reaching from
the immediate and first reporter of the fact to
the living mediate witness from whom we
take it from, or to the one who was the first to
commit it to writing.
b. There should be several parallel and
independent series of witnesses testifying to
the fact in question.
✣ 2. Particular conditions:
a. The tradition must report a public event of
importance, such as would necessarily be
known directly to a great number of persons.
b. The tradition must have been generally
believed, at least for definite period of time.
c. During that definite period it must have
gone without protest, even from persons
interested in denying it.
d. The tradition must be one of relatively
limited duration (Elsewhere, Garraghan
suggests a maximum limit of 150 years, at
least in cultures that excel in oral
remembrance)
e. The critical spirit must have been
sufficiently developed while the tradition
lasted, and the necessary means of critical
investigation must have been at hand.
f. Critical-minded persons who would surely
have challenged the tradition – had they
considered it false – must have made no such
challenge.
Kinds and Repositories
Of Primary Sources
✣
Primary Sources
Primary Sources may be published
or unpublished documents and
may also be unwritten.
✣
Published Documents
Those that are intended for public
distribution or use such as
newspapers, magazines, books,
reports etc.
Unpublished Documents
These documents are confidential
and are restricted from public use
such as personal letters, diaries,
journals, etc.
✣
Unwritten sources
These may includes oral traditions,
oral histories, artworks and artifacts.
Where do primary sources
of Philippine history are
placed?
National Archives of the
Philippines (NAP)
National Archives of the
Philippines (NAP)
- National Archives of the Philippines (NAP) was
established to store, preserve, conserve, and make
available to the public the records that have been
selected for permanent reservation.
-NAP is holding about 60,000,000 archival
documents with Spanish Collection comprising an
estimated 13,000,000 manuscripts with 400 titles on
various aspects of Philippine history under Spanish
rule, American and Japanese occupation records,
and recent records.
National Library of the
Philippines (NLP)
National Library of the
Philippines (NLP)
- The National Library of the
Philippines (NLP) is the repository of
the printed and recorded cultural
heritage of the country.
- It was established by a royal decree
on 12 August 1887 and named as the
Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas.
-
National Museum of the
Philippines (NM)