THE STUDY OF HISTORY

Module 1/Topic 1
 DEFINITION OF HISTORY

• The word "history" means the search for knowledge and

truth, searching to find out. "History is any integrated
narrative or description of past events or facts written in a
spirit of critical inquiry for the whole truth"
 WHY STUDY HISTORY?

Dizon et al (2011) citing Perry (1999) enumerated the reasons why we need
to study history, these are

1. To learn about our past. Studying history enables us to learn about the
lives of our ancestors, their struggles, and their achievements. What we
have and what we enjoy today are the products of their innovation, hard
work and sacrifices
2. To understand the present. The traditions, system of government cultural
heritage, and many other things are products of the past. Most of the
things have historical original and not just products of fads and crazes.
3. To Appreciate our heritage from a broad perspective. Our belief
system, patriarch tradition, common values including our
material culture can be understood and appreciated well if we
have a full understanding of our past.

4. To acquire background for critical thinking. The issues, situations,

and challenges that our country is presently facing can mostly be
attributed in the past, for these, are encountered before, history
provides us details to understand, predict and provide solutions
to these
 CLASSIFIC ATION OF HISTORIC AL
SOURCES

• Historical sources may be classified as primary or secondary (Fox,

1969). A primary source is regarded as the source of the best
evidence. This is because the data come from the testimony of
able eye and eyewitnesses to past events. They consist of actual
objects used in the past which you can directly scrutinize or
examine. The secondary source is information supplied by a
person who was not a direct observer or participant of the event
object or condition (Sevilla et al, 1992).
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN PRIMARY
SOURCES AND SECONDARY SOURCES

• The distinction between Primary Sources and Secondary

Sources Primary sources, the only solid bases of historical
work are the original documents ur remains, the first
witnesses to a fact" (Good, cited by Good and Scates
1972).
 SOURCES OF DATA FROM PRIMARY
AND SECONDARY SOURCES

The primary sources are as follows:

1. Individual persons.
2. Organized groups or organizations such as associations, fraternities,
schools, business firms, churches, army, navy, air force, government,
lawmaking bodies, family, tribe, etc.
3. Established practices such as marriage, religious rites, legal system,
economic system, democracy system, etc.
4. Documents in their original forms such as the constitution, laws,
orders, proclamations, treaties, contracts, census and all kinds of original
records, letters, desires, etc.
5. Living organisms such as animals, fowls, lower forms of living
organisms.
6. Man-made material things such as buildings, machines, weapon,
artifacts, appliances, roads, bridges, dams, radio, television, electricity,
etc.
7. Natural objects and phenomena such as rain, wind, typhoon, water,
earthquake, mountain, snow, etc.
Secondary sources are as follows:

1. Books including dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, etc.

2. Articles published in a professional journal, magazine newspaper,
and other publications.
3. Unpublished master's theses and dissertations, and other studies.
4. Monographs, manuscripts, etc.
5. All other second-hand sources.
6.Verbal or written data.
 INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL
CRITICISMS

• External Criticism – the genuineness of the documents

a researcher used in a historical study; where the
authenticity of documents is established.
• Internal Criticism – looks at the content of the
document to determine its authenticity; where credibility is
established.
 AUXILIARY SCIENCES DETERMINING
AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS OF A
DOCUMENT

• Epigraphy
• Diplomatic
• Paleography
• Philology
• Archaeology
• Anthropology
• Prehistory
• Chemistry