READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

Outline
• Meaning of history
• History as reconstruction
• The historical method
• Historical sources (written and non-written; primary and secondary)
• Historical Criticism (external and internal)

What is History?
• History is the study of human past as it is described in written documents left behind by
humans. The past, with all of its complicated choices and events, participants dead and
history told, is what the general public perceives to be the immutable bedrock on which
historians and archaeologists stand.
• But as purveyors of the past, historians recognize that the bedrock is really quicksand,
that bits of each story are yet untold, and that what has been told is colored by the
conditions today.

Pithy History Definitions

• “History is a narration of the events which have happened among mankind, including an
account of the rise and fall of nations, as well as of other great changes which have
affected the political and social condition of the human race.” – John Jacob Anderson

The Psycho-Historian
• “The main concept of the Foundation Trilogy is that if you are a good enough
mathematician, you can accurately predict the future, based on the record of the past.”
– Isaac Asimov

A Pack of Tricks

• “History is nothing but a pack of tricks we play on the dead.” – Voltaire

History as Reconstruction
• The historian is many times removed from the event under investigation.
• Historians rely on surviving records.
• “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 he historian’s attention.” –
Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History
• “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.”
Historical Revisionism
• Is often decried as “changing history”, and in some cases it is a dangerous attempt to
selectively use historical evidence to justify a particular political or philosophical point of
view. But in most cases, when historians change their interpretations of history, it is
because they have learned new information or taken a fresh look at established sources
and have changed their interpretations of a particular historical subject.
• Is both positive and negative, positive when it brings to light new or historically valid
information that enlightens readers about hitherto unknown historical realities, and
negative when historical interpretation is changed by selectively using historical
evidence that supports a particular set of political or cultural ideals to misuse history to
support a particular political or cultural ideal.
• Magellan and Lapu-lapu as an example of historical revisionism
• Apolinario Mabini
• Ancestors of the Filipinos
• Jose P. Laurel

Historical Distortion
• Occurs when historical accounts or narratives are changed to suit a personal agenda. It
involves disinformation and lies to change history.

What is the Historical Method?

• Historians have to verify sources, to date them, locate their place of origin and identify
their intended functions.
• Historical inquiry
• The process of critically examining and analyzing the records and survivals of the past

Historical Sources
• Sources – an object from the past or testimony concerning the past on which historians
depend in order to create their own depiction of that past.
• Tangible remains of the past.
• Written Sources
1. Published Materials
- Books, magazines, journals
- Travelogue
- Transcription of Speech
2. Manuscript (any handwritten or typed record that has not been printed)
- Archival materials
- Memoirs, diary
• Non-written Sources
- Oral history
- Artifact
- Ruins
- Fossils
 - Artworks
- Video recordings
- Audio recordings
- Interviews, films, photos, recordings of music, clothing, building, tools from the
period
• Materials used for the writing of history. Classified into two:
1. Primary Sources
- Testimony of an eyewitness (they are either participants or witnesses.
- Must have been produced by a contemporary of the event it narrates
- Is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time
under study.
- These sources were present during an experience or time period and offer an
inside view of a particular event.
- Materials produced by people or groups directly involved in the event or topic
being studied.
- These sources range from eyewitness accounts, diaries, letters, legal documents,
and official documents (government or private), and even photographs
- Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they
are available in original format, in microfilm/microfiche, in digital format, or in
published format.
- Four Main Categories of Primary Sources: written sources, images, artifacts, oral
testimony
- Four Examples of Primary Sourced Related to Visual Imagery: maps,
photographs, sketches, drawings, paintings, cartoons
2. Secondary Sources
- Interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more steps
removed from the event.
- May have pictures, quotes, or graphics of primary sources in them.
- Works that analyze, assess, or interpret an historical event, era, or phenomenon,
generally utilizing primary sources to do so.
- Often offer a review or a critique.
- Written well after the events that are being researched.
- Includes books, journals, articles, speeches, reviews, research reports, history
textbooks, printed materials
Historical Criticism
• In order for a source to be used as evidence in history, basic matters about its form and
content must be settled:
1. External Criticism
- The problem of authenticity
- To spot fabricated, forged, faked documents
- To distinguish a hoax or misrepresentation
- Tests of Authenticity:
- Determine the date of the document to see whether they are anachronistic (eg.
Pencils did not exist before the 16th century)
 - Determine the author (eg. Handwriting, signature, seal)
- Anachronistic style (eg. Idiom, orthography, punctuation)
- Anachronistic reference to events (eg. Too early, too late, too remote)
- Provenance or custody (eg. Determines its genuineness)
- Semantics (determining the meaning of a text or word)
- Hermeneutics (determining ambiguities)
2. Internal Criticism
- The problem of credibility
- Relevant particulars in the document — is it credible?
- Verisimilar — as close as what really happened from a critical examination of
best available sources.
- Tests of Credibility:
- Identification of the Author (eg. To determine his reliability; mental processes,
personal attitudes)
- Determination of the Approximate Date (eg. Handwriting, signature, seal)
- Ability to Tell the Truth (eg. Nearness to the event, competence of witness,
degree of attention)
- Willingness to Tell the Truth (eg. Determine if the author consciously or
unconsciously tells falsehoods)
- Corroboration (ie. Historical facts – particulars which rest upon the independent
testimony of two or more reliable witnesses)

Three Major Components to Effective Historical Thinking

1. Sensitivity to Multiple Causation
2. Sensitivity to Context
3. Awareness of the interplay of continuity and change in human affairs