EVALUATING MATERIALS IN TERMS OF

AUTHENTICITY, CREDIBILITY AND

PROVENANCE

MODULE 1.1
SUBJECT: READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY
Learning Outcome
LO1.1 Evaluate materials in terms of authenticity,
credibility and provenance.
TOPIC OUTLINE
I. History
II. Primary and Secondary Sources
III. Objectivity and Subjectivity
IV. Historical Method and Historiography
V. Original Sources
VI. Primary Particulars
VII.Perspective
VIII.Test of Authenticity and Credibility
History
HISTORY IS THE PAST OF MANKIND
 HISTORY

HISTORY-AS -ACTUALITY HISTORY-AS-RECORDED

 HISTORY

OBJECTIVE PROCESS SUBJECTIVE PROCESS

History-as-recorded

Check
Observe Recall Record NARRATE
credibility
HISTORY

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

HISTORIOGRAPHY
Historical Method – the process of
critically examining and analyzing the
records and survivals of the past.
Historiography – the imaginative
reconstruction of the past derived
from historical method.
Methods of Historical Analysis
1. Selection of a subject for investigation
2. Collection of probable sources of
information on that subject
3. Examination of those sources for
genuineness
4. Extraction of credible particulars
PRIMARY SOURCES
Primary sources are those sources
produced at the same time as the
event, period or subject being studied.
PRIMARY SOURCES [examples]
1. Photographs
2. Old sketches and drawings
3. Old maps
4. Cartoons for political expression or propaganda
5. Material evidence of prehistoric past
6. Oral history or recordings by electronic means
SECONDARY SOURCES
Testimony of anyone who is not an
eyewitness – that is of one who was
not present at the event of which he
tells.
SECONDARY SOURCES [examples]
1. Books
2. Articles
3. Scholarly journals that interpret
primary sources
Original Source
Historians use the term “original source”
in two senses:
1. to describe a source, unpolished,
uncopied and untranslated (eg. Original
draft of the Magna Carta)
2. a source that gives the earliest
available information
Primary Particulars
Facts or details from a primary source
which are considered worthy because
of the reliability of the narrator as a
witness.
Thucydides c 460 – 400 BC

Father of "scientific history" by

those who accept his claims:
1. Strict standards of impartiality
2. Evidence-gathering
Historical Fact
A historical fact is a particular derived
directly on indirectly from historical
documents and regarded as credible
after careful testing in accordance with
the canons of historical method.
Perspective
Perspective refers to the point of view
of the writer who was a witness to the
event.
Document
Document (from docere, to teach)
◦ written source of historical information

Documentation
◦ any process of proof based upon any
kind of source whether written, oral,
pictorial or archeological
Authenticity and Credibility
AUTHENTIC

EXTERNAL INTERNAL
CRITICISM DOCUMENT CRITICISM

CREDIBLE
CRITIQUING – EXTERNAL CRITICISM
External criticism
Practice of verifying the authenticity of
evidence by examining its physical
characteristics ; with the historical
characteristic of the time when it was
produced ; and the materials used for the
evidence.
CRITIQUING –EXTERNAL CRITICISM
To check: 1.]quality of paper
2.]type of ink
3.]language and words
used in the materials
CRITIQUING –INTERNAL CRITICISM
INTERNAL CRITICISM
Examination of truthfulness of the evidence . It looks
at the content of the source and examines the
circumstance of its production. It looks at the author
of the source, its context, the agenda behind its
creation , the knowledge which informed it, and its
intended purpose , among others.
SUMMARY
I. Primary and Secondary Sources
II. Objectivity and Subjectivity
III. Historical Method and Historiography
IV. Original Sources
V. Primary Particulars
VI. Perspective
VII.Test of Authenticity and Credibility
REFERENCES

Candelaria & Alporha (2018) Readings in Philippine history. 1st ed

Louis Gottschalk (1950) Understanding History: A Primer of Historical
Method