LIBRADA, SHEILA MAE E.

1st Year PSY222

Readings in Philippine History: Course Material Week 1

ASSESSMENT
A. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL SOURCES
Read the Excerpts of Robert Fox's “the Tabon Caves: The Archaeological Explorations
and Excavations on Palawan Island, Philippines” and William Henry Scott’s
“Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History (Revised Edition) and
Answer the Following Question.
1. Which are the primary sources and the secondary sources between the two
readings? Explain.

Primary Source: ROBERT FOX'S “THE TABON CAVES: THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL

EXPLORATIONS AND EXCAVATIONS ON PALAWAN ISLAND, PHILIPPINES” (1970)
➢ The author has provided archaeological descriptions of the fossils; which gives
an idea that he had a first-hand experience of the said excavations. Between the
two readings, it appears that Fox have written his work first before Scott. He also
added that the months and year of the excavation, as well as the readings, are
purely focused on the traits and significance of the 'tabon man' that they have
discovered. It appears that Fox was reporting events that he himself have seen
and wrote about them in his own journal.
Secondary source: WILLIAM HENRY SCOTT’S “PREHISPANIC SOURCE
MATERIALS FOR THE STUDY OF PHILIPPINE HISTORY (REVISED EDITION)(1984)
➢ In this article, the author seemed to have written his opinions and reviews about
the discovery of the ‘tabon man,’ as well as a scenario and his own assessments
of what a ‘tabon man’ would appear like if the prehistoric man was a modern
Filipino. Although he did not properly cite them, the information from
anthropologists that he included in his writings made it seem more factual and
communicable. Scott’s writing appeared to be more of a summary and analysis
of all the data he had gathered on the subject.

2. Do a credibility analysis/internal criticism of the sources. Who between the

two authors is more credible to talk about the topic?
Upon researching the backgrounds of the two authors, it was known that Robert
Fox was the Chief Anthropologist of the Philippine National Museum, and have
conducted numerous research on caves and open-site archaeology on different
provinces in the country. It was said that Fox, along with some of his colleagues,
excavated the Tabon caves in Palawan; which led to their discovery of the late
Pleistocene human fossil remains and associated stone implements. On the other hand,
William Henry Scott is a prominent scholar, known for his major contributions on writing
about the precolonial Philippine society and the history of the Cordilleras.
Upon reading the excerpts, Robert Fox’s article provided significant
archaeological details that were solely about the excavation in the Tabon cave. He
noted what fragments were found, which area that the fossils were retrieved,
conclusions and further methods that will be conducted with the organic remains. The
said excavation was conducted in June and July 1962, and the article published in
1970.
Meanwhile, Scott’s writings delivered a more concise version of Fox’s Journal.
Although the content in the excerpt had more variety of information than of Fox’s work,
he only provided an evaluation of the said topic. He was not able to further state his
first-hand perspective, and only provided summaries about the ‘Tabon man’. His book
was also published in 1984; around 14 years after Fox published his work.
This, indeed, is a sound conclusion that Robert Fox has more credibility to talk
about the topic of ‘tabon man’; for he had relevant first-hand experience of discovering
and describing the fossils, and he was able to provide quality information on the said
topic, as it is his accustomed field of study.

B. The reconstruction of the total past of mankind, although it is the goal of

historians, thus becomes a goal they know full well is unattainable. What are
your thoughts about his ideas on history, given your knowledge on historical
research and sources, as he further stated…?
"Only a small part of what happened in the past was ever observed. 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 has survived has come to the historians' attention; only a part of
what is credible has been grasped, and only a part of what has been grasped can be
expounded or narrated by the historian."

Reconstructing our history is like building a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, wherein

you have to find the missing pieces not only within books, but also from different
fossils, artifacts, eyewitness reports, and other primary sources; which are in fact,
difficult to retrieve. What made it more arduous is that verifying it whether the
sources that were found are significant and credible to be part of history. This
filters down to a much fewer ‘puzzle pieces’ to attach onto the bigger picture.
Because only a few people back then took the initiative to document or to take
 note of what have happened, we could only account a certain event from a
perspective of at least a single set of a human’s primary senses. Not only that,
but as we go further back in the timeline, primary sources get much harder to
retrieve; for some of these have been either destroyed, withdrawn from
collections, or hidden from the public, or even beneath the earth’s surface.

References

The Imperfect Historical Record | Western Civilization. (n.d.). Lumen Learning. Retrieved

August 31, 2022, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-herkimer-

westerncivilization/chapter/the-imperfect-historical-record/

Ladrido, R. (2022, June 6). William Henry Scott: A Filipino, in heart and spirit. VERA Files.

Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://verafiles.org/articles/william-henry-scott-a-

filipino-in-heart-and-spirit

The Robert B. Fox, Sr. Papers. (n.d.). University of the Philippines Baguio. Retrieved August

31, 2022, from https://www.upb.edu.ph/robert-fox