Mariah Navarro

1CA1 Week 4 notes (Readings in Philippines History)

History and the Historian

If history is written with agenda or is heavily influenced by the historian is it possible to
come up with an absolute truth?
The answer is “Yes”
These questions have haunted historians for many generations. Indeed, an exact and
accurate account of the past is impossible for the very simple reason that we cannot go back to
the past. It is the job of the historian to give meaning to these facts and organize them into a
timeline, establishes causes, and writes history.

 Historians is not a blank paper who mechanically interprets and analyzes presents
historical facts. His subjectivity will inevitably influence the process of his Historical
Research: the methodology that he will use, the facts that he shall select and deem
relevant, his interpretation, and even the form of his writings.

 Historical methodology comprises certain techniques and rules that historians follows
in order to properly utilize sources and historical evidences in writing history.
Annales School of History

 Is a school of History born in France that challenged the canons of history

 This school of thought did away with the common historical subjects that were almost
related to the conduct of states and monarchs.
Annales Scholars

 Lucien Febvre

 Marc Bloch

 Fernand Braudel

 Jacques Le Goff
o They studied other subject in a historical manner. They were concerned with social
history and studied longer historical periods.
o Advocated that people and classes who were not reflected in the history of the society in
the grand manner be provided with space in the records of mankind.
o History is married with other discipline like geography, Anthropology, Archeology, and
Linguistics.
Historical Sources
Historian’s most important research tools as history’s subject matter, it can be primary and
secondary sources

 Primary Source- are those produces at the same time as the event, period, or
subject being studied.
Mariah Navarro
1CA1 Week 4 notes (Readings in Philippines History)

Examples: Newspaper clippings, Minutes of the meeting/conventions etc.

Eyewitness accounts of convention delegates and their memoirs can also be used as primary
sources.

 Secondary Sources- sources which were produced by an author who used

primary sources to produce the material. You can’t have secondary sources if
you don’t have the primary historical sources.
Example: Textbooks

 Tertiary source- this classification is usual but not automatic.

o The historian should be able to conduct an external and internal criticism of the source,
especially primary sources which can age in centuries.
Types of Criticism

 External Criticism- is the practice of verifying the authenticity of evidence by

examining its physical characteristics.
o The following things that will be examined when conducting external criticism of a
document include:
 Quality of the paper
 Type of the ink
 Language and words used

 Internal Criticism- is the examination of the truthfulness of the evidence. It looks

at the content of the source and examines the circumstance of its production.
o Validating historical sources is important because the use of unverified, falsified, and
untruthful historical sources can lead to equally false conclusions.

 Ancient Filipinos -Narrated their history through communal songs and epics
that they passed orally from a generation to another or next generation.

 Spanish Colonizers -Their chroniclers started recording their observations

through written accounts. They narrated the history of their colony in a bipartite
view
Mariah Navarro
1CA1 Week 4 notes (Readings in Philippines History)

 Early Nationalist -Refuted Spanish colonizer’s perspective and argued the

tripartite view. They saw the precolonial society as a luminous age that ended
with darkness when the colonizers captured their freedom.