Handouts in Readings in Philippine History

I. INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY: DEFINITION, ISSUES, SOURCES, AND METHODOLOGY

A) Definition, etymology and development of History:

(1) The study of the past

(2) Derived from the Greek word historia which means “knowledge acquired through inquiry
or investigation.”
(3) Existed for around 2,400 years and is as old as mathematics and philosophy.
(4) The term was adapted to classical Latin wherein it has become Historia which is the
account of the past of a person or of a group of people through written documents and
historical evidences.

Traditional Historians lived with the mantra of “no document, no history” which means that
unless a written document can prove a certain historical event, then it cannot be considered
as a historical fact.

Problems regarding the “No document, no history” mantra:

(1) It invalidates the history of other civilizations that do not keep written records because
some were keener on passing their history by word of mouth.
(2) Others got their historical documents burned or destroyed in the events of war or
colonization.
(3) Restricting historical evidence as exclusively written is also a discrimination against other
social classes who were not recorded in paper.

With this problems, historians started using other kinds of historical sources which were just
as valid as written sources such as:

 Epics and songs

 Artifacts
 Architecture
 Memory and etc.

B) Questions and Issues in History (Historiography’s Significance in Studying History)

Historiography vs History
History – study of the past, the events that happened in the past, and the causes of such
events.

Historiography – history of history. The study of history itself. The main questions of
historiography are: How was a certain historical text written? Who wrote it? What was the
context for the publication? What particular historical method was employed? What were
the sources used? Thus, historiography lets the students have a better understanding of
history. They do not only get to learn historical facts, but they are also provided with the
understanding of the facts’ and the historian’s contexts.

History as Narrative
Any history written is always intended for an audience
Examples:
 Rizal and Illustrados wrote History for Spaniards to realize that Filipinos have their
own intellect and culture.
 American colonizers wrote for their fellow Americans to justify the colonization of the
islands.
  North Korea and Nazi Germany to justify war.
Schools of Thought which were Influential in the way History was Written
POSITIVISM – (18th-19th century) requires empirical and observable evidence before one can
claim that a particular knowledge is true. It entails an objective means at arriving at a
conclusion. In the discipline of history, the mantra, “no document, no history” stems from
this very same truth, where historians were required to show written primary documents in
order to write a particular historical narrative. Positivist historians are also expected to be
objective and impartial not just in their arguments but also on their conduct of historical
research.

POSTCOLONIALISM – (early 20th century) emerged when formerly colonized nations

grappled with the idea of creating their identities and understanding their societies against
the shadows of their colonial past. Post-colonial history (1) tells the history of the
colonized nation that will highlight their identity free from that of colonial discourse and
knowledge and (2) it criticizes the methods, effects, and idea of colonialism. Postcolonial
history is therefore a reaction and a n alternative to the colonial history that colonial
powers created and taught to their subjects.
C) History and the Historian

Questions regarding the subjectivity of History:

 Is it possible then to come to an absolute historical truth?
 Is history therefore an objective discipline?
 If it is not, is it still worthwhile to study it?

We cannot access the past as directly as our subject matter. Historians only get to access
representation of the past through historical sources & evidences.
It is the duty of the historian to not just to seek historical evidences but also to interpret
these facts.
“Facts cannot speak for themselves”
Historians are persons who are influenced by his own context, environment, ideology,
education, and influences, among others. His subjectivity will inevitably influence the
process of his historical research.
History then is always subjective.
 Can history be considered still an academic and scientific inquiry?
Despite the fact that historians cannot ascertain absolute objectivity, the study of history
remains scientific because of the rigor of research and methodology that historians
employ.
HISTORICAL METHODOLOGY comprises techniques and rules that historians follow in
order to properly utilize sources and historical evidences in writing history. Certain rules
apply in cases of conflicting accounts in different sources, and how to properly treat
eyewitness accounts and oral sources as valid historical evidence. In doing so, historical
claims done by historians and the arguments that they forward in their historical writings,
while may be influenced by the historian’s inclinations, can still be validated by using
reliable evidences and employing correct and meticulous historical methodology.

Ex. A historian chooses to use an oral account as his data in studying the ethnic history of
the Ifugaos in the Cordilleras during the American Occupation, he needs to validate the
claims of his informant through comparing and corroborating with written sources.
 Therefore, while bias is inevitable, the historian can balance this out by relying to the
evidences of his claim. In this sense, the historian need not let his bias blind his judgment
and such bias is only acceptable if he maintains his rigor as researcher.

D) Historical Sources
Types of Historical Data

a) Written Sources
 Narrative or Literature are chronicles or tracts presented in narrative form, written to
impart a message whose motives for their composition vary widely. Examples are
newspaper articles which may intend to shape opinion or the so-called ego-document
or personal narrative such as diary or memoir which might be composed in order to
persuade readers of the justice of the author’s action etc.
 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.
 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.

b) Non-written sources
 Material evidence, also known as archaeological evidence is one of the most
important unwritten evidences. This includes artistic creations such as pottery, jewelry,
dwellings, graves, churches, roads, and others that tell a story about the past.
 Oral evidence is also an important source of information 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. During the present age, interviews is another
major form of oral evidence.

Historical Sources
 PRIMARY SOURCE - Sources produced at the same time as the event, period, or
subject being studied. For instance, if your study is about Commonwealth Constitution
Convention of 1935 the primary sources would be: minutes of the convention,
newspaper clippings, Philippine Commission Reports, etc.
Examples: Photographs, speeches, diaries, editorials, letters, interviews, historic
artifacts, works of art, musical scores, performances, literary works, survey research,
etc.
 SECONDARY SOURCE - Sources which were produced by an author who used
primary sources to produce the material. For instance, if your study is about the
Philippine Revolution of 1896, secondary Sources could be the textbook: Revolt of the
Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan published in 1956 (the happening
was on 1896 while the published textbook was on 1956 and this textbook had also
primary sources as its sources) Therefore, a secondary source gets its information
from primary sources
Examples: Second hand reports on events, research, or works created by someone
else at a different time; criticisms; reviews, interpretations; citations, etc.
  TERTIARY SOURCE – It typically compile and condense a range of primary
and/secondary sources into an easily-digestible format
Examples: Encyclopedias, almanacs, timelines, bibliographies, directories, fact books,
etc.

Some notes on Historical Sources

The Classification of the sources depends not on the period when the source was
produced or the type of the source
BUT ON THE SUBJECT OF THE HISTORICAL RESEARCH OR INQUIRY.
Ex. A textbook is usually classified as a secondary source, a tertiary source even.
However, this classification is usual but not automatic because if the subject of the
study is about the history of textbooks of a certain period and by a certain publisher,
then the textbook at hand could be a primary source.

General Methods in the Critique of Sources

1. External Criticism – it is the practice of verifying the authenticity of evidence by
examining its physical characteristics; consistency with the historical characteristic of
the time it was produced; the materials for evidence.
Ex. Quality of paper, the type of ink, language used etc.
2. Internal Criticism – it is the examination of the truthfulness of the evidence. It looks at
the content of the source and examines the circumstances of its production. It looks at
the truthfulness and factuality of the evidence by looking at the author of the source,
its context, the agenda behind its creation, the knowledge which informed it, its
intended purpose, among others.
Ex. Japanese reports during the period of the war and declarations should not be
taken as historical facts hastily. Internal criticism entails that the historian acknowledge
and analyze how such reports can be manipulated to be used as war propaganda.
Brief History of Philippine Historiography
Philippine Historiography underwent several changes since the precolonial period until the
present.
1) Ancient Filipinos narrated their history through communal songs and epics that they
passed orally from a generation to another.
2) When the Spaniards came, their chroniclers started recording their observations
through written historical accounts.
(The perspective of historical writing and inquiry also shifted. The Spanish colonizers
narrated the history of their colony in a bipartite view: they saw the age before
colonization as a dark period in the history of the islands, until they brought light
through Western thought and Christianity.)
3) Early Nationalists argued with the bipartite perspective of the Spaniards and they
argued for a tripartite view.
(Nationalists viewed the precolonial society as a luminous age that ended with
darkness when the colonizers captured their freedom. They believed that the light
would come again once the colonizers were evicted from the Philippines.)
4) Recently, Filipino Historian Zeus Salazar introduced a new guiding philosophy for
writing and teaching history: pantayong pananaw (for us- from us perspective). This
perspective highlights the importance of facilitating an internal conversation and
discourse among Filipinos about our own history, using the language that is
understood by everyone.
References: Candelaria, J & Alphora, V. (2018) Readings in Philippine History (Rex Book Store)
Ligan V, et. Al. (2018) Readings in Philippine History (Mutya Publishing)