History: Introduction and Historical Sources

INTRODUCTION
History is the study of change over time, and it covers all aspects of human society. Political, social,
economic, scientific, technological, medical, cultural, intellectual, religious and military developments are all
part of history.

HISTORY
 History refers to the study and interpretation by a historian on the data and other source of the past
human activity, people in the definition. , societies and civilizations leading to the present day. There are
three important concepts.
 First, history as we all know is based on past events.
 Second it is interpreted by someone usually by historian. They gather, discard and interpret the sources
that they encounter.
 And finally and the most important, history rely on data and documents which historian call as historical
sources.
History’s Subject Matter
Fast Check
Like other social science discipline, the subject matter of history is the life of people and humanity. But
history has always been known as the study of the past. While this definition of history is not wrong, it is
incomplete.
Clarifications
Etymologically, the word history came from the Greek word Historia which means inquiry. Clearly the
word Historia does not mean past events. It denotes asking question or investigation of the past done by
person trained to do so or by persons who are interested in human past.
Conclusion
Hence, we can say that historical account must be based on all available relevant evidence.
Therefore, a version of the past that cannot be supported by the evidence is worthless.

History and the Historian

 Historian is an expert or student of history, especially that of a particular period, geographical
region or social phenomenon. There are many duties of a historian. These historians seek not only
historical evidence and facts but also to interpret these facts. He also gives meaning to these facts
and organizes them chronologically.
 A person who must be able to recognize the evidence, decide how useful it is and come to
conclusion based on what he has found out. The historian therefore is responsible for
reconstructing the past.
 According to Gottschalk, historian is many times removed from the events under investigation. He
added that only a part of what was observed in the past was remembered by those who observed
it, only a part of what was remembered was recorded; only a part of what was recorded has
survived, only a part of what was survive has come to the historian attention. Moreover, only a part
of what is credible has been grasped, and only a part of what has been grasped can expounded or
narrated by the historian. (Louis Gottschalk, President of AHA, 1953)

 Some authors define history as a study of historical perspective. In reconstructing the past, a
historian can be subjective; after all he is human, fallible and capable error. People’s memories
are filled with bias, self-righteousness, pride, vanity, spinning, obstruction and outright lies. Each
has his own frame of reference or a set of interlocking values, loyalties assumptions interest and
principle of action.

 The historian is influenced by his own environment, ideology, education and influence. His
interpretation of the historical fact is affected by his context and circumstances. It’s like the Indian
parable of an elephant and the blind men, historians have different historical perspective.
 Because certain events happened so long ago and because sometimes the evidence is
incomplete, historians have different approaches and views about what happened in the past.
This is the subjective nature of history, one historian claims an event happened a certain way,
while another disagree completely. The best approach is to do all we can to reconstruct as fully
as possible our picture of the past. To do this, most scholars use historiography or what they
call history of history.
 Historiography is the study of how history was written, by whom and why it was recorded as
such. It is concerned with how historians have presented history.
 Interpretation about the past can be objective or true as long as they are free of inherent
contradictions, are not contrary to the laws of nature and are based on actual remains from the
time period referred to. There should also a scientific discourse among historians on a particular
controversial event.
 If an idea that say Jose Rizal retracted on being a mason stand up to the critique of historian
who are the skeptical of his retraction then the idea must be true.

“One big advantage of historiography is that the liars of history are usually quite transparent.”
 Another way for a historian to be objective is to follow the historical method.
 It is the core protocols historians’ use for handling sources. An agreed ground rules for
researching and writing academic research or professional history. An objective historian must
verify sources, to date them, locate the place of origin and identify their intended functions. It is
important for a historian to base their accounts on source materials.
Sources of History
Historical sources are tangible remains of the past. It is an object from the past or
testimony concerning the past on which historians depend in order to create their own
depiction of the past. There are three kinds of sources namely: primary, secondary, and
tertiary sources.
PRIMARY SOURCES
 A primary source is a testimony of an individual who was a participant in or a direct
witness to the event that is being described.
 It isa document or physical object which was written or created during the time under a
study. Those sources were present during an experience or time period and offer an
inside view of a particular
 Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are
available in original format, in microfilm, in digital format or in published format.
There are five main categories of primary sources. It includes written sources, numerical
records, oral statements, relics, and images.
The most common are written sources or documents. They are written or printed
materials that have been produced in one form or another sometime in the past
They may be published materials such as travelogue, transcription
of speech, autobiographies, journals or newspapers (La
Solidaridad).
They may be published materials such
as travelogue, transcription of speech,
autobiographies, journals or
newspapers (La Solidaridad).

They may be published materials such as travelogue,

transcription of speech, autobiographies, journals or newspapers
(La Solidaridad).

They may be published materials such as travelogue,

transcription of speech, autobiographies, journals
or newspapers (La Solidaridad).

They can be also in manuscript form or any

handwritten or type record that has not been printed.
 Example of these is archival materials, memoirs, diary,
personal letter or correspondence.
NUMERICAL SOURCES
The next category is the numerical records which include any type
of numerical data in printed or handwritten form.
ORAL SOURCES
The third category is oral statements
which include any form of statement
made orally by an eyewitness. It
maybe through video recordings,
audio recordings, or transcribed.

RELICS
Another category is the relics or any objects whose physical or
visual characteristics can provide some information about the past.
These include artifacts, ruins and fossils.

IMAGES
The last category of primary sources is the images.
It includes photograph, posters, paintings, drawing cartoons and
maps.

SECONDARY SOURCES
 A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more
steps removed from the event. It is prepared by an individual who was not direct witness to an
event, but not who obtained his or her description of the event from someone else.
 Secondary sources may have pictures, votes or graphics of primary sources in them. Some
types of secondary sources are history textbook, printed materials (serials or periodicals which
interpret previews research), biographies, nonfiction text such as newspaper, magazine,
journals, works of criticism and interpretation.

TERTIARY SOURCES
The last kind of sources is the tertiary source. It provides
third hand information by reporting ideas and details from
secondary source. An eyewitness is more reliable than
testimony at second hand, which is more reliable than
hearsay or tertiary sources.

This does not mean that tertiary sources have no

value, merely that they include potential for an
additional layer of bias. Some examples of this kind of
source are encyclopedia, almanac, YouTube,
 dictionaries, message boards, social media sites and
other search sites.
Historical Criticisms
INTRODUCTION
 Historical criticism is also known as the historical-critical method. It is a branch of criticism that
investigates the origin of text or source in order to understand the word behind the text. The primary
goal of historical criticism is to discover the text primitive or original historical context and its literal
sense. At the end of this lessons, you shall be able to:
1. Provide ideas that guide the discipline of history
2. Develop critical and analytical skills with exposure to primary source
3. Evaluate primary sources for their credibility, authenticity and provenance
4. Opportunities to improve critical thinking.

 The secondary goal seeks establish a reconstruction of historical situation of the author and recipients
of the text.
 Moreover, in order for source to be used as evidence in history, basic matters about its form and
context must be settled.
 These are two types of historical criticism namely: external criticism (investigates the documents form)
and internal criticism (investigates the content of the documents).

GOALS
 seeks greater understanding of the texts by analyzing the historical and social contexts in which
they developed.
 The goal of historical criticism, traditionally, has been to try to understand the text’s meaning in its
original context and to answer questions about the text, such as: Who wrote it? When was it
written? What else what happening at the time of its writing? How did it come to be in the form we
have it today? What did it mean to the people who first read or heard it?
 Historical criticism has also often sought answers to the ever-elusive question of what is called
“authorial intent”: What did the author intend for this text to mean in his or her time and place?

External Criticisms
 This type of criticism looks for the obvious sign of forgery or misrepresentation. This type of
criticism tests the authenticity of the sources. It is interested in the writing styles of the
eyewitness and his ignorance of the facts.
 The historian also analyzes the original manuscript; its integrity, localization and the date it was
written.
 To ascertain if a particular data is fabricated, forge, fake, corrupted or a hoax, that source must
undergo the test of authenticity.
 Since external criticism is concern with the explicit sign of misrepresentation, it is the first test the
historian employs to ascertain sources validity.

Test of Authenticity
 The first step to test a source is to determine the date of document to see whether it is
anachronistic.
 Anachronism means out of time or order, something that could not have been there at that
particular time. It could be a person, thing or idea placed in a wrong time.
 Being able to spot anachronism is important because it helps us test the reliability of a source. If a
source is unreliable then we probably should not use it.
o Example can be found in Rizal’s allegedly first poem “ Sa Aking Mga Kabata” where we
could find the word “kalayaan”.
o Rizal admitted that he first encountered the word though a Marcelo H. Del Pilar’s
translation of Rizal’s essay “ El Amor Patrio”. Rizal wrote this essay in 1882 while the
poem supposedly was written by him in the year 1869.
 The second step is to determine the author’s handwriting, signature or seal. We can
compare the handwriting of particular author to his other writings. Obvious sign of forgery in
include patch writing, hesitation as revealed by ink blobs, pauses in the writing, tremor causing
poor line quality and erasures.
 o However, some people are highly skilled in imitating others handwriting. Even a skilled
forger can be caught because the act of writing is a skill is learned through repetition until
it becomes a habit.
o Thus, there is natural variation in everyone handwriting. In addition, no one can duplicate
all of the intricate subconscious writing habits of another in an extended writing sample.
Example of this is the handwriting in the alleged retraction letter of Jose Rizal.
 The third test in determining the authenticity of the source is by looking for the anachronistic
style. In this test we will examine idiomatic expression or the orthography used in the
documents.
 An idiom is an expression, word or phrase that has a figurative meaning conventionally
understood by native speakers. When we say ‘break a leg’ we all know that it means good luck.
 Orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language. It includes norms of spelling,
hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis and punctuation.
o When the poem Sa Aking Mga Kabata was allegedly written in 1869, most Philippine
language was widely written in a variety of ways based on Spanish Orthography:
 The fourth test is the anachronistic reference to events. For example if the event cited in the
document is prior to the actual event, then the document must be forge or fake.
 The fifth test of authenticity is the provenance or custody of the document. Provenance is the
place of origin of earliest known history of documents. It traces the roots of any source.

The other two test of authenticity is the semantics and hermeneutics .

Semantics is the linguistic study of meaning. In this test semantics
determine the meaning of the text and words of the source. We may ask:
is the meaning of the statements different from its literal meaning?
Hermeneutics on the other hand is theory and methodology of
interpretation.
Hermeneutics is more than interpretation or method used when
immediate comprehension fails.
In historical criticism we determine ambiguities which are a word or expression that can be
understood in two or more possible ways. Historians may look also if the statement is meant to be
ironic (i.e. mean other than what it says).

Internal Criticisms
This type of criticism looks for deeper or more intense study of sources. Usually historians first
apply external criticism before undergoing the test of credibility because of internal criticisms implicit
character.
It is important that the document must be verisimilar or as close as what
really happened from a critical examination of best available resources.
It refers to the accuracy of the content of a document.
Internal criticism has to do with what the document says. It investigates the
content or substance of a document and the author’s point of view.
This type of criticism tests the credibility of the source.

Test of Credibility
 The first step is the identification of the author.
o It determines if the witness is reliable or if he is consistent by comparing his other works.
o In this steps historian also examine the mental processes of the witness, if he is capable of telling
the truth, or if he is mentally challenge.
o Finally, we will look for his personal attitudes, if he is telling something beyond what he saw or
bragging about it. Many historians use some kind of rubric to test the credibility of the author.
 The second step in testing the credibility of the eyewitness is to determine the approximate date.
o Example of this is again Rizal’s poem “Sa aking mga kabata”. He wrote that poem when he is only
eight years old and that poem is with rhythm and meter. To think that when Rizal was 8 years
old the primary education in the Philippines was non-existent.
 The third step in testing the credibility of the source is its ability to tell the truth.
 o Historians examine how near an eyewitness is to the event. The closer a source is to the event
which it purports to describe, the more one can trust it to give an accurate historical description
of what actually happened
o Historian also look for the competence of the eyewitness. Basically they look for the background
of the author like education, health, age or social status.
o The last test for this step is the degree of the attention of the eyewitness. Whether the sources
witness the event only partly or if he witnesses the event from the start to finish.
 The fourth step is the willingness to tell the truth. If the eyewitness is coerced, forced or somebody
threaten him to tell something then his account is not valid. If the eyewitness wants to hide something
for personal reason.
o The last step is to look for corroboration. This particular step rest upon the independent testimony
of two or more reliable sources. The words independent testimony must be emphasize.
o For instance, if the soldier who fought the battle, a general who oversaw the battle and a doctor
who treated those wounded who fought the battle, all recorded the same fact or all agree about
an event, historians consider that event proven.