Readings In Philippine History E-note

Readings in Philippine History

Emil Aries Layco

Chapter 1: The Meaning of History, Sources of Historical Data, and Historical Criticisms Sunday, 15 September 2019

Lesson 1: The Meaning of History 1. HISTORY- derived from the Greek Word HISTORIA, means “knowledge acquired through inquiry/research or investigation or learning by inquiry” - HISTORIA became known as the account of the past of person or of a group of people through written documents and historical evidences. 2. HISTORY - study of past- described in written documents.  Referred usually for accounts of phenomena, especially human affairs in chronological order.  Became an important academic discipline. Its duty is to write lives of important individual like monarchs, heroes, saints, and nobilities.  Focused on writing about wars, revolutions, and other important breakthroughs.  It progressed and opened up to the possibility of valid historical sources, which are not limited to written documents, like government records, chroniclers’ account or personal letters. Some are keener on passing their history by word of mouth.  “History is the record of what one age finds worthy of note in another”Burckhardt  “History in its Broadest sense, is everything that ever happened” – Henry Johnson  “The value and interest of history depend largely on the degree in which the present is illuminated by the past” -VS. Smith  “Story of man’s struggle through the ages against nature and the elements; against wild beasts and the jungle and some of his own kind who have tried to keep him down and to exploit him for their own benefit” – Jawaharal Nehru  “systematic accounting of a set of natural phenomena, taking into consideration the chronological arrangement of the account” ** this

BSME 2A explains that knowledge is derived through conducting a process of scientific investigation of past events. – Aristotle

Theories Constructed by Historian in investigating History 1. Factual History  present the readers the plain and basic information: 3 W (what, when, where who), 1H 2. Speculative History  goes beyond facts  it concerns about the reason for which events happened (WHY) and the way they happened (HOW)  Cause and effect of an event. Historians- individuals who write history Traditional Historian- “no document, no history”  Unless a written document can prove a certain historical event, then it cannot be considered as historical facts. Historiography- practice of historical writing  History of history  Traditional method of doing historical research that focus on gathering of documents.  Imaginative reconstruction of the past from the data derived by the historical method Verisimilitude- historian’s aim  The truth, authenticity, plausibility about a past. Historical Method  process of critically examining and analyzing the records and survivals of the past. Historical Analysis  important element of historical method.  Historians: o Select the subject to investigate o Collect probable sources of information of the subject o Examines the sources genuineness, in part of in whole o Extract credible “particulars”/ data or facts from the sources or part of sources.

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Readings in Philippine History

Emil Aries Layco

Lesson 2: Sources of Historical Data Historical Data- are sourced from artifacts that have been left by the past. Artifacts- can either be relics or remains, or the testimonies of witnesses to the past 

Can be found where relics of human happenings can be found

Relics or Remains  

Offer researchers a clue about the past. Examples are: 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.

Testimonies of Witnesses 

Whether oral or written, or may have been created to serve as records, such as the record of property exchange, speeches, and commentaries

Historian deals with:   



The dynamic or genetics (the becoming) Static (the being) Aims at being interpretative (explaining why and how things happened and were interrelated) Descriptive (telling what happened, when, where, and who took part)

Written Sources of History 1. Narrative or literary a. Are chronicles or tracts presented in narrative form. b. Written to impart a message whose motives for their composition vary widely. c. Example: newspaper article, personal narrative: diary, novel or film; bibliography 2. Diplomatic or Judicial a. Document/record an existing legal situation or create a new one, and it is these kinds of sources that professional historians once treated as purest (best source).

BSME 2A 3. Social Documents a. Information pertaining to economic, social political, or judicial significance. b. Examples: government reports on municipal accounts, civil registry records, etc.

Non-written/unwritten sources 1. Material Evidence a. Also known as archeological evidence b. One of the most important unwritten evidences. c. Includes artistic creation such as : pottery, jewelry, dwellings, graves, churches, roads, etc. 2. Oral evidence a. Also, an important info for historians, much are told by the tales or sagas of ancient peoples and folk songs or popular rituals from the pre-modern period of Philippine History. b. During the present age, interview is another major form of oral evidence Two General Kinds of Historical Sources 1. Primary Sources or DIRECT a. Are originals, first-hand account of an event or period usually written or made during or close to the event or period b. those sources produced at the same time as the event, period, or subject being studied c. regarded as the source of best evidence. – because the data came from the testimony of able eye and eye witness to past events. d. Provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, a person, or a work of art e. Examples of Primary or Direct sources: Archival documents, artifacts, memorabilia, letters, census, government records, diaries, journals, newspaper. f. Different Kind of Primary Sources i. Literature or Cultural sources 1. Novels, plays, poem 2. Television shows, movies, or videos

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Readings in Philippine History Emil Aries Layco BSME 2A 3. Paintings or Lesson 3: Historical Criticisms photographs 1. Historical Criticism- examines the origins of ii. Accounts that describe earliest text to appreciate the underlying events, people, or ideas circumstances upon which the text came 1. Newspapers be. 2. Chronicles or 2. Goals of Historical Criticism historical accounts a. To discover the original meaning of 3. Essays and the text in its primitive or historical speeches context and its literal sense or 4. Memoirs, diaries, sensus literalis historicus. journals, and letters b. To establish a reconstruction of the 5. Philosophical historical situation of the author treatises or and recipients of the text manifestos 3. AUTHENTICITY- is determined by external iii. Information about people criticism, whereas 1. Census records 4. CREDIBILITY is established by internal 2. Obituaries criticism. 3. Newspaper articles 5. Two Types of Historical Criticisms 4. Biographies and a. External Criticism – determines the autobiographies authenticity of the source. iv. Finding information about i. Refers to genuineness of place the documents a researcher 1. Maps and atlases used in a historical study. 2. Census information ii. Conducts document 3. Statistics analysis using science 4. Photographs iii. The authenticity of the 5. City directories material may be testes in 6. Local libraries or two ways: historical societies 1. By paleography v. Finding Information about (deciphering and an organization dating of historical 1. Archives (held by manuscripts) libraries, 2. Diplomatic institutions, or Criticisms (critical historical societies) analysis of historical 2. Secondary Sources or INDIRECT document to a. Generally, describe, discuss, understand how interpret, comment upon, analyze, the document came evaluate, summarize, and process to be, the primary sources information b. Materials made by people long transmitted. after the events being described b. Internal Criticisms had taken place to provide valuable i. determines the historicity interpretations of historical events of the facts contained in the c. Those sources which were document. It is not produced by an author who used necessary to prove the primary sources to provide authenticity of the material material. or document. d. Examples are: biographies, ii. is textual criticism, it histories, literary criticism, books involves factors such as written by a third party about competence, good faith, historical events, art and theater position, and bias of the reviews author e. Newspaper or journal articles that iii. it looks at the content of interpret the document to determine its authenticity. Page | 3

Readings in Philippine History Emil Aries Layco iv. It involves determining the intention of the source of date 6. Auxiliary science that help in determining authenticity and genuineness of a document a. EPIGRAPHY o The study of inscriptions and the art of deciphering them b. Diplomatics o Science of charters and diplomas and includes knowledge of the practices and of forms used in them c. Paleography o Study of writing, which has a history all of its own d. Philology o In all its branches is of greatest use in determining date and authenticity 7. Greatest influencer upon study of history a. Archeology – scientific study of life and culture of the past, especially ancient peoples, as far as excavations of ancient cities, relics, artifacts, etc.. b. Anthropology- the study of humans, especially of the variety, physical and cultural characteristics, distribution, customs, social relationships, etc. of humanity c. Prehistory- is history before recorded history as learned from archeology 8. Chemistry and the papermaker’s art may be able to say and have often said that a given document written on a wood pulp with a particular ink, for example, cannot be older than the definite date when these materials were first manufactured.

BSME 2A

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