READINGS
IN
PHILIPPINE
HISTORY
THE MEANING OF HISTORY,
CHAPTER 1
SOURCES OF HISTORICAL DATA,
& HISTORICAL CRITICISMS
OVERVIEW
Lesson 1 introduces history as a discipline and as a narrative. It discusses the
limitation of historical knowledge, history as the subjective process of re-creation and
historical method and historiography. Lesson 2 presents the sources of historical data,
the written and non-written sources of history as well as the differentiation of primary
and secondary sources of information or data. Lesson 3 discusses historical criticisms,
namely, external and internal criticisms. These are important aspects in ascertaining the
authenticity and reliability of primary sources upon which narratives are crafted.
LESSON 1
THE MEANING OF HISTORY
History is derived from the Greek word historia which means learning by inquiry.
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, looked upon history as the systematic accounting of a
set of natural phenomena, that is, taking into consideration the chronological
arrangement of the account. This explained that knowledge is derived through
conducting a process of scientific investigation of past events.
The word History is referred usually for accounts of phenomena, especially
human affairs in chronological order. These are theories constructed by historians in
investigating history: the factual history and the speculative history. Factual history
presents readers the plain and basic information vis-à-vis the events that took place
(what), the time and date with which the events happened (when), the place with which
the events took place and the people that were involved (who). Speculative history on
the other hand, goes beyond facts because it is concerned about the reasons for which
events happened (why), and the way they happened (how). "It tries to speculate on the
cause and effect of an event." (Cantal, Cardinal, Espino & Galindo, 2014)
History deals with the study of past events. Individuals who write about history
are called historians. They seek to understand the present by examining what went
before. They undertake arduous historical research to come up with a meaningful and
organized rebuilding of the past. But whose past are we talking about? This is the basic
questions that the historian needs to answer because this sets the purpose and
framework of a historical account. Hence, a salient feature of historical writing is the
facility to give meaning and impact value to the group of people about their past. The
practice of historical writing is called historiography, the traditional method in doing
historical research that focus on gathering of documents from different libraries and
archives to form a pool of evidence needed in making a descriptive or analytical
narrative. The modern historical writing does not only include examination of documents
but also the use of research methods from related areas of study such as archeology
and geography.
THE LIMITATION OF HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE
The incompleteness of record has limited man’s knowledge of history. Most
human affairs happen without leaving any evidence or records of any kind, no artifacts,
or if there are, no further evidence of the human setting in which to place surviving
artifacts. Although it may have happened, but the past has perished forever with only
occasional traces. The whole history of the past (called history-as-actuality) can be
known to a historian only through the surviving records (history-as-record), and most of
history-as-record is only a tiny part the whole phenomenon. Even the archeological and
anthropological discoveries are only small parts discovered from the total past.
Historians study the records or evidences that survived the time. They tell history
from what they understood a credible part of the record. However, their claims many
remains variable as there can be historical records that could be discovered, which may
affirm on refute those that they have already presented. This explains the
“incompleteness” of the “object” that the historians study.
HISTORICAL AS THE SUBJECTIVE PROCESS OF RE-CREATION
From the incomplete evidence, historians strive to restore the total part of
mankind. They do it from the point of view that human beings live in different times and
that their experiences maybe somehow comparable, or that their experiences may have
significantly differed contingent on the place and time. For the historians, history
becomes only that part of the human past which can be meaningfully reconstructed
from the available records and from inference regarding their setting.
In short, historian’s aim is verisimilitude (the truth, authenticity, plausibility) about
a past. Unlike the study of the natural science that has objectively measurable
phenomena, the study of history is subjective process as documents and relics are
scattered and do not together comprise the total object that the historian is studying.
Some of the natural scientists, such as geologists and paleo-zoologists who study
fossils from the traces of a perished past, greatly resemble historians in this regard, but
they differ at certain points since historians deal with human testimonies as well as
physical traces.
HISTORICAL METHOD AND HISTORIOGRAPHY
The process of critically examining and analyzing the records and survivals of the
past is called historical method. The imaginative reconstruction of the past form the data
derived historiography. By means of historical and historiography (both of which are
frequently grouped together simply as historical method), he historian endeavors to
reconstruct as much of the past of mankind as he/she can. Even in this limited effort,
however, the historian handicapped. He/she rarely can tell the story even of a part of
the past as it occurred. For the past conceived of as something “actually occurred”
places obvious limits upon the kinds of record and of imagination that the historians may
use. These limits distinguish history from fiction, poetry, drama and fantasy.
Historical analysis is also an important element of historical method. In historical
analysis, historians: (1) select the subject to investigate; (2) collect the probable sources
of information on the subject; (3) examine the sources of genuineness, in part of in
whole; and (4) extract credible “particulars” from the sources (or parts of sources). The
synthesis of the “particulars” thus derived is historiography. Synthesis and analysis
cannot be entirely separated since they have a common ground, which is the ability to
understand the past through some meaningful, evocative and convincing historical or
cross-disciplinary connections between a given historical issue and other historical
contexts, periods, or themes.
EXERCISE 1.1
Name:
Date:
Course and Year:
Score:
Match the item in column A with the item in column B. Write the letter of the correct
answer in the space provided before the number.
A
1. Incompleteness of record has limited man’s
knowledge of history.
2. There are raw materials out of which history may
be written.
3. This historical method historian instigate, collect
and examines sources
4. Historian ability to reconstruct historical events
5. Historian aim of searching the truth, authenticity
and plausibility
6. Object or things that have since been forgotten or
the experience of generation being dead
7. The practice of historical writing
8. Learning by inquiry
9. Historical objectivity
10. The process of critically examining and analyzing
the records and survival of the past
B
A. Verisimilitude
B. Historia
C. Interpretative
D. Historical Impartiality
E. Historiography
F. Artifacts or Documents
G. Limitation of historical
knowledge
H. Aristotle
I. Historical Method
J. Historical Analysis
K. Historical Bias
EXERCISE 1.2
Name:
Date:
Course and Year:
Score:
Give concise explanation/ discussion of the following items.
1. How important historical writings are to a person group/ race and country? Explain.
2. Discuss the importance of historical analysis
3. How do you give meaning to a so called “history”? Explain.
4. Explain the difference between factual history and speculative history
LESSON 2
SOURCES OF HISTORICAL DATA
HISTORICAL DATA are sourced from artifacts have been left by the fast. These
artifacts can either be relics or remains, or the testimonies of witnesses to the past.
Thus, historical sources are those materials from which the historians construct
meaning. To rearticulate, a source is an object from the past or testimony concerning
the past on which historians depends to create their own depiction of the past. A
historical work or interpretation is thus the result of such depiction. The source provides
evidence about the existence of the event; and a historical interpretation in an argument
of the event.
Relics or “remains”, whose existence offers researchers a clue about the past, for
example, the relics or remains of a prehistoric settlement. Artifacts can be found where
relics of human happenings can be found, for example, a potsherd, a coin, a ruin, a
manuscript, a book, a portrait, a stamp, a piece of wreckage, a strand of hair, or other
archeological or anthropological remains. These object, however never happening or
the events; if writing documents, they may be the results or the records of events.
Whether artifacts or documents, they are materials out of which history may be written.
(Howell & Preveneir, 2001.)
Testimonies or witnesses, whether oral or written, may have been created to
serve a record or they might have been created for some purposes. All these describe
an event, such as the records of a property exchange, speeches and commentaries.
The historian deals with the dynamic or genetic (the becoming) as well as the
static (the being) and aims at being interpretative (explaining why and how things
happen and interrelated) as well as descriptive (telling what happened, when and
where, and who took part). Besides, the descriptive data as can be describe direct and
immediately from surviving artifacts are only small part of the periods to which then
belongs. A historical context can be given to them if only they can be placed in human
setting. The lives of human being can be assumed from the retrieved artifacts, but
without further evidence the human contexts of these artifacts can be never recaptured
of any degree of certainty.
WRITTEN SOURCES OF HISTORY
Written sources are usually categorized in three ways: (1) narrative or literary (2)
diplomatic or juridical and (3) social documents.
1. Narrative or literatures are chronicles or tracts presented in narrative form,
written to impart a message whose motives for their composition vary widely. For
example, a scientific tract is typically composed in order to inform contemporaries
or succeeding generation; a newspaper article might be intended to shape
opinion; the so- called ego document or personal narrative such as a diary or
memoir might be composed in order to persuade readers of the justice of the
author’s actions ; a novel or film might be made to entertain ,to deliver a moral
teaching, or to further a religious cause; a biography might be written in praise of
the subject’s worth and achievements (a panegyric, a public speech or published
text in praise of someone or something or hagiography, the writing of the lives
of saints). A narrative source is therefore broader than what is usually considered
fiction. (Howell & Prevenier, 2001).
2. Diplomatic sources are understood to be those which document/record an
existing legal situation or create a new one, and it is these kinds of sources that
professional historians once treated as the purest, the “best” source. The classic
diplomatic source is the charter, which a legal instrument. A legal document is
usually sealed or authenticated to provide evidence that a legal transaction has
been completed and can be used as evidence in a judicial proceeding in case of
dispute. Scholars differentiate those legal instruments issued by public
authorities (such as kings or popes, the Supreme Court of the Philippines and
Philippine Congress) from those involving only private parties (such as a will or a
mortgage agreement). Diplomatic sources possess specific formal properties,
such as hand and print style, the ink, the seal, for external properties and
rhetorical devices and images for internal properties, which are determined by
the norms of laws and by tradition. Such characters also vary in time (each
generation has its own norms) and according to origin (each bureaucracy has its
own traditions).
3. Social documents are information pertaining to economic, social, political, or
judicial significance. They are records kept by bureaucracies. A few examples
are government reports, such as municipal accounts, research findings, and
documents like these, parliamentary procedures, civil registry records, property
registers, and records of census.
NON-WRITTEN SOURCES OF HISTORY
Unwritten sources are as essential as written sources. They are two types: the
material evidence and oral evidence.
1. Material evidence, also known as archaeological evidence is one of the most
important unwritten evidences. This includes artistic creation such as pottery,
jewelry, dwellings, grave, churches, roads, and others that tell a story about the
past. These artifacts can tell a great deal about the ways of life of people in the
past, and their culture. These artifacts can also reveal a great deal about the
socio-cultural interconnections of the different groups of people especially when
an object is unearthed in more one place. Commercial exchange may also be
revealed by the presence of artifacts in different places. Even places that are
thought to be significant, such as garbage pits, can provide valuable information
to historians as these can be traces of a former settlement.
Sometimes, archeological sites that are of interest to historians are
unearthed during excavations for road, sewer line, and big building structures.
Known historical sites are purposely excavated with the hope of reconstructing
and understanding their meaningful past. Moreover, archeological finds such as
coins or monies can provide historians with significant information relating to
government transactions during which the currencies were in circulation.
Similarly, historians can get substantial information from drawings, etching,
paintings, films, and photographs. These are the visual representations of the
past.
2. Oral evidence is also an important source of information for historians. Much are
told by the tales or sagas of ancient peoples and the folk songs or popular rituals
from the premodern period of Philippine history. During the present age,
interviews are another major form of oral evidence.
PRIMARY VERSUS SECONDARY SOURCES
There are two general kinds of historical sources: direct or primary and indirect or
secondary.
1. Primary sources are original, first-hand account of an event or period that are
usually written or made during or close to the event or period. These sources are
original and factual, not interpretive. Their key function is to provide facts.
Examples of primary sources are diaries, journal, letters, newspaper and
magazine articles (factual accounts), government records (census, marriage,
military), photographs, maps, postcard, posters, recorded or transcribed
speeches, interviews with participants or witnesses, interviews with people who
lived during a certain time, songs, play, novels, stories, paintings, drawings, and
sculptures.
2. Secondary sources, on the other hand, are materials made by people long after
the events being described had taken place to provide valuable interpretations of
historical events. A secondary source analyzes and interprets primary sources. It
is an interpretation of second-hand account of a historical event. Examples of
secondary sources are biographies, histories, literacy criticism, books written by
a third party about a historical event, art and theater reviews, newspaper or
journal articles that interpret.
EXERCISE 1.3
Name:
Date:
Course and Year:
Score:
Encircle the letters of your sources
1. These are original historical sources.
A. E
C. Primary Sources
B. Descriptive sources
D. Interpretative Sources
2. This evidence is considered as material evidence
A. Recordings
C. Diaries
B. Archeological
D. Books
3. Historian console these inquires as document/ records and existing legal
evidence as the best source
A. Relics
C. Oral sources
B. Remains
D. Diplomatic sources
4. The third part of diplomatic source. The attention of those reasonable for the
documents, which map to the author, writer, composer and witnessed to the
A. M
C. Contest
B. Protocol
D. Negotiable
5. These historical sources are material by nature
A. Unwritten sources
C. Written sources
B. Reliable source
D. Talons
6. The product of record keeping of history which serve as information
A. Minutes
C. Formulas
B. Social documents
D. Content
7. This is a examples of primary sources
A. Newspapers
C. Painting
B. Electronic data
D. Tape records
8. What is the historical track typically composed to inform
A. Narrative
C. Judicial tracks
B. Literature
D. Scientific track
9. These are material made by people long after the events being
A. Primary source
C. Scientifics sources
B. Diplomatic source
D. Secondary sources
10. Which is not example of primary source
A. W
C. A birth certificate
B. Letters
D. A photograph
EXERCISE 1.4
Name:
Date:
Course and Year:
Score:
Give concise explanation/ discussion of the following items.
1. What are the benefits of using primary sources
2. Do you affirm that primary sources are superior to secondary sources? Explain
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of accessing secondary sources?
LESSON 3
HISTORICAL CRITICISMS
Historical criticism examines the origins of earliest text to appreciate the
underlying circumstances upon which the text came to be (Soulen and Soulen,2001).It
has two important goals: First ,to discover the original meaning of the text in its primitive
or historical context and it's literal sense or sensus literalis historicus. Second, is to
establish a reconstruction of the historical situation of the author and recipient of the
text. Historical criticism has two types, external criticism and internal criticism.
Historical criticism has its roots in the 17th century during the Protestant
Reformation and gained popular recognition in the 19th and 20th century (Ebeling,
1963).The absence of historical investigation paved the way for historical criticism to
rest on philosophical and theological interpretation. The passing of time has advance
historical criticism into various methodologies used today such as source criticism
(which analyze and studies the sources used by biblical author), form criticism (which
seek to determine a unit original from and historical context of the literary tradition),
redaction criticism (which regards the author of the text as editor of the source material),
tradition criticism (which attempt to trace the developmental stage of the oral tradition
from its historical emergence to its literary presentation), canonical criticism (which
focuses its interpretation of the Bible on the text of biblical cannon), and related
methodologies (Soulen,2001).
There are two parts of a historical criticism. The first part is to determine the
authenticity of the material, also called provenance of the source .The critics should
determine the origin of the material, its author, and the source of information used.
External criticism is used in determining these facts .The second part is to weigh the
testimony to the truth .The critic must examine the trustworthiness of the testimony as
well as determine the probability of the statement to be true. This process is called
internal criticism or higher criticism since it deals with more important matter than the
external form .
1. External Criticism determines the authenticity of the source. The authenticity of
the material may be tested in two ways, by paleographical (the deciphering and
dating of historical manuscript) and diplomatic criticism (critical analysis of
historical documents to understand how the document came to be, the
information transmitted, and the relationship between the facts purported in the
document and the reality).The material must be investigated based on the time
and place it is written. The critic must determine whether the material under
investigation is raw, meaning unaltered, and it exists exactly as the author left it.
The content must be viewed in every possible angle, as forgery was not unknown
during the Middle Ages. The authority of the material can be examined from other
genuine sources having the same subject or written during the same period. The
similarities or agreements and differences or disagreement of some common
details, such as the culture and traditions, and events during the period by which
the document was made can be a basis for judging the authenticity of the text.
2. Internal criticism determines the historicity of the facts contained in the
documents. It is not necessary to prove the authenticity of the material or
document. However, the facts contained in the document must first be tested
before any conclusion pertaining to it can be admitted. In determining the value
of the facts, the character of the sources, the knowledge of the author, and the
influences prevalent at the time of writing must be careful investigated. It must be
ascertained first that the critic knows exactly what the author said and that he/she
understands the documents from the standpoint of the author. Moreover, the
facts given by the author or writer must be firmly established as having taken
place exactly as reported.
TEST OF AUTHENTICITY
To distinguish a hoax a misrepresentation from a genuine document, the
historian must use tests common in police and legal detection. Making the best guess if
the date of the documents, he/she examines the materials to see whether they are not
anachronistic: paper was rare in Europe before the fifteenth century, and printing was
unknown; pencils did not exist before the 16th century; typewriting was not invented
until the 19th century; and Indian paper came only at the end of that century. The
historian also examines the inks for signs of age or of anachronistic chemical
composition.
Making the best guess of the possible author of the document, he/she sees of
he/she can identify the handwriting, signature, seal, letterhead, or watermarked. Even
when the handwriting is unfamiliar, it can be compared with authenticated specimens.
One of the unfulfilled needs of the historian is more of what the French call
"isographies" or the dictionaries of biography giving examples of handwriting. For some
period of history, experts using techniques known as paleography and diplomatics have
long known that in certain regions at certain times handwriting and the style and form of
official documents were conventionalized. The disciplines of paleography and
diplomatics were founded in 17th century by Dom Jean Mabillon, a French Benedictine
monk and scholar of the Congregation of Saint Maur. Seals have been the subject of
special study by sigillographers, and experts can detect fake ones. Anachronistic style
(idiom, orthography, or punctuation) can be detected by specialists who are familiar with
cotemporary writing. Often spelling particularly of proper names and signatures, reveal
forgery as would also unhistoric grammar.
Anachronistic references or events (too early or too late er too remote) or the
shafting of a document at a time when the alleged writer could not possibly have been
at all place designated (the alibi) uncovers Fraud sometimes skillful forger has all the a
copy in certain passages: by skillful paraphrase and invention he/she given away by the
absence trivia and otherwise unknown details from his/her manufactured account.
However, usually if the document is where it ought to be (e.g. in a family's archives, of
incomprehensible in the governmental bureau’s record) its provenance (costudy, as the
lawyers refer to it), creates a presumption of its genuineness (Gottsschalk, 1969).
EXERCISE 1.5
Name:
Date:
Course and Year:
Score:
Identify what is being described in the following items.
1. It determines the authenticity of the source
2. This is considered of
or misinterpretation from the genuine
document.
3. It is a dictionary of biography that gives examples of handwriting.
4. It is historical real that has been subject of special study of expert
5. This means that the historical texts are primitives and historical context
in the primitive sense.
6. This criticism deals with more important matters than the external form
7. This refers to the time’s century when historical criticism was properly
formed
8. It determines the historicity of the fact contained in the document
9. This refers so the time/ century when historical typewriting was
invented
10. This refers to the era when historical forgery was not known
EXERCISE 1.7
Name:
Date:
Course and Year:
Score:
Give concise explanation/ discussion of the following items.
1. What is historical criticism?
2. Discuss the importance of historical criticism?
3. Do you believe that writing history is subjective? Why? Explain
4. How can the writing of history be objective? Explain
EXERCISE 1.8
Name:
Date:
Course and Year:
Score:
A. Identify/define the following terms
1. History
2. Historical writings
3. Verisimilitude
4. Historiography
5. Historical analysis
6. Paleography
7. Diplomatic
8. Sigillography
9. Historical criticism
10. Test of authenticity
B. Distinguish between primary and secondary sources of historical data. Give at
least 10 examples under each category.
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Examples of primary sources
Examples of secondary sources
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
6
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10
10