○“A lie told a thousand times becomes the
truth”
History
➔ From Greek word (hístoria) which means
“inquiry” or “knowledge from inquiry or learned
man”
◆ About investigating something
➔ Herodotus - father of history (started
recording/writing events)
➔ Study of the human past and activities
◆ We do not mix myths/fictional lits in
history
➔ A narrative of recorded past events that happened
among mankind
◆ A story
➔ A chronological, often explanatory or
commentarial record of events, as of the life or
development of a people or institution.
◆ It is linear (there is an order) with a
timeline
➔ Both an art and a science
◆ An art - provides a sense of what is
beautiful/ideal
● Trutch is fascinating
● Is learned through practice
◆ A science - systematic and organized
form of knowledge
● Is the info authentic or reliable
➔ One of the branches of the social sciences
◆ Deals with people (society) - helps know
human beings better
● thinking/cognitive
● feelings/emotions
● Behavior - varies accdg. To
setting and reaction to stimuli
➔ KASAYSAYAN = SAYSAY
◆ “Ang Kasaysayan ay sanaysay na may
saysay para sa sinasaysayan.”
● -Dr. Zeus Salazar
◆ It is significant
➔ Understanding = appreciation of content
Issues in History
● Social memory
○ Feminists call it sex-biased - affected by
past access to education
● Accurate reporting of history
○ Downside of democracy - lose sense of
accountability
● Understanding causation
○ “A causes b to happen” but b can happen
due to multiple factors
○ We shall not oversimplify
● Presentation of history
Point of Views in History
● Idealism
● Historicism
● Relativism
Idealism
➢ the belief that history can be described in terms of
ideas. Focused not only about events, but on what
those events meant (“thoughts of the past can be
re-thought by the historian”)
➢ History is meant to be interpreted (how and why)
➢ Move beyond “what? Where? When?”
Historicism
➢ ‘the autonomy of the past must be respected’.
➢ Each age has its own values, and events should be
described within the context of those values
➢ See history based on the context of when it
happened
➢ weakness: legitimization of events
Relativism
➢ there is no absolute truth and that all views of
history are valid.
➢ What you believe is what you believe
➢ Selective biased is formed
➢ Weakness: Can lead to historical denialism
Importance and Uses of History {Foray and
Salevouris (1988)}
● Provides a source of personal and social identity.
○ We get to know ourselves better; who we
are as filipinos
● Helps us understand the problems of the present.
○ Develop a sense of empathy/compassion
 ● History–good history-corrects misleading Sources of Historical Data
analogies and “lessons” of the past.
● Written vs. Non-written sources of history (both
● Can help one develop tolerance and open-
important)
mindedness.
● Primary sources vs. Secondary sources of history
● Helps us better understand all human behaviors
and all aspects of the human condition.
Written Sources of History
● Provides the basic background for many
disciplines. ➢ Types:
● Can be a source of entertainment. ○ Narrative or literary
● History, when studied, can teach many critical ○ Diplomatic or juridical, and
skills. ○ Social documents

Theoretical Assumptions in the study of History Non-written Sources of History

➢ Types:
➔ Theories explain and make sense of ideas, ○ Interviews
phenomena… ○ Films
○ Photos
POSITIVISM ○ Recordings of music
➢ entails an objective means of arriving at a ○ Clothing
conclusion ○ Buildings,
➢ thought requires empirical and observable ○ Tools
evidence before one can claim that a particular
knowledge is true Primary Source
➢ historians should pursue the objective truth of the ➢ Original item that provides evidence about the
past by allowing historical sources to "speak for past
themselves", without additional interpretation ➢ a piece of evidence created during the period
➢ To see is to believe under investigation
➢ Usually used in the field of science ➢ ‘raw materials’ ‘often considered as the
➢ Documenting evidence is crucial foundation of historical research and writing
➢ From americans ➢ Can be an eyewitness account or a firsthand
account of a particular event
POSTCOLONIALISM ➢ Can either be written or unwritten
➢ Emerged in early 20th century when formerly ➢ Kinds:
colonized nations grapples with the idea of ○ Personal journals/diaries/memoirs/parish
creating their identities and understanding their records
societies against the shadows of their colonial ○ Letters, newspaper, magazine
past ○ Court proceedings, legislative debates
➢ Looks at two things in writing history: ○ Movies, music, art
○ To tell history of their nation that will ○ Objects or artifacts (e.g. clothes, jewelry,
highlight their identity free from that of farming implements)
colonial discourse and knowledge
○ To criticize the methods, effects and idea Secondary Source
of colonialism ➢ Piece of historical entity that is anchored in
➢ “Decolonization of the mind” primary sources
➢ Highlighting our own voices, our own identity ➢ Usually an assessment or a commentary of
events, people, or institution of the past.
 ➢ Offer an analysis or a restatement of primary
sources
➢ Kinds:
○ Books and articles produced by
historians
○ Pieces of art, literature, music, etc.
created later to represent life in that time
period.
Historical Revisionism
● Is the reinterpretation of a historical account or
narrative based on actual facts and authenticated
evidence (Krasner, 2019)
● Misinformation - unintentional
● Disinformation - has an ulterior motive
Historical Distortion
➢ When historical accounts or narratives are
changed to suit “personal agenda”. It involves
disinformation and lies to change history
(Cristobal, 2019)
Checking the Authenticity and Reliability of the Primary
Sources
❖ External criticism – validating the authenticity
❖ Internal criticism – validating the reliability
External Criticism
● Verifying the authenticity of evidence by
examining its physical characteristics;
consistency with the historical characteristic of
the time when it was produced; and the materials
● Examples of things that will be examined when
conducting external criticism of a document
include:
○ authorship and date of production
○ quality of the paper,
○ type of ink,
○ language and words used in the
material
Internal Criticism
● Examination of the truthfulness of the evidence.
● More subjective
● Looks at content of the source and examines the
circumstances of its production
● Looks at the factuality of the evidence by looking
at the author of the source, its context, the agenda
behind its creation, the knowledge which
informed it, and its intended purpose
○ How close was the author to the event
being studied?
○ Why did he or she write the source?
○ Who was the intended audience?
○ What is the context in which the source
was written and read?
○ Is there bias to be accounted for?
○ Is the account corroborated by other
accounts?
Evaluating Internet Sources (Rampolla, 2004)
★ Author’s Identity - for background checking;
ensure reliability and expertise
★ Author’s References - to make sure it is not made
up
★ Credibility of the Web site (.edu .org .gov)
★ Updated sources
★ Useful links
★ Corroborated by other sources
➔ “Validating historical sources is important
because the use of unverified, falsified, and
untruthful historical sources can lead to equally
false conclusions Without thorough criticisms of
historical evidences, historical deceptions and
lies will all be probable” (Candelaria and
Alporha, 2018)
Historiography
● “the history of historical writing”
PHILIPPINE HISTORIOGRAPHY
➢ Underwent several changes since the precolonial
period until present
➢ Ancient Filipinos narrated their history through
communal songs and epics that they passed orally
from a generation to another
➢ When colonialism happened, chroniclers started
recording their observations through written
accounts. Both the Spanish and American
colonizers narrated the history of their colony in
bipartite view (darkness-light)
➢ Filipino historian Dr. Zeus Salazar, introduced
the new guiding philosophy for writing and
 teaching history: pantayong pananaw (“for us -
from us” perspective)
○ This perspective highlights
importance of facilitating an internal
conversation and discourse among
Filipinos about our own history, using
the language that is understood by
everyone.
○ Challenged the bipartite view and instead
offered a tripartite analysis of Philippine
history.
➢ Pre Colonial - elders disseminate or kwento
➢ Colonial - mostly written by colonizers
➢ Post colonial - from us, for us
Tripartite View of History (Light-Darkness-Light again)
Conclusion
● History is the collective memory of society, ―the
repository of a people‘s consciousness
● History enriches human experience and
inculcates in us self-knowledge, knowledge of
others and a sense of patriotism and national
pride.
● History holds the key to our understanding of past
problems, tragedies and achievements
Content and Contextual Analysis
the
Content Analysis
➔ Effective technique in using primary sources to
enrich history and to introduce practical social
science research (Gustafson, 2010)
➔ Useful in analyzing visual or verbal materials.
Can be used to analyze documents, excerpts of
works, pictures, and illustrations
➔ Determine whether the information in the source
is logical
◆ Main Idea - what the source generally
wants to say
◆ Specific Information - the details
presented in the source that supports and
strengthens the main idea. Serves as the
basis which makes the main idea truthful
Contextual Analysis
➔ Refers to the social, religious, economic, and
political conditions that existed during a certain
time and place.
➔ Details that surround an occurrence: time and
place in which a situation occurs
➔ Enable us to interpret and analyze works or
events of the past, or even the future, rather than
merely judge them by contemporary standards
➔ For example, a historian would have to situate the
document in the period of its production, or in the
background of its authors.
➔ In other words, it should be recognized that facts
are neither existing in a vacuum nor produced
from a blank slate.
➔ These are products of the time and of the people.
➔ Background of the event - Refers to what was
happening at the time of the writing/making of
the source
➔ Background of the author - Basic information
about the author/maker of the source such as what
was his/her profession or what was he/she doing
at the time the source was made, how old was he
or she, where was his/her location at the time, etc.
Doing Content and Contextual Analysis

CONTENT ANALYSIS - Questions to ask:

➢ What is the primary source about?
➢ What type of information does the primary source
contain?
➢ What message does the primary source depict and
convey?

CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS - Questions to ask:

➢ Who wrote or made it?
➢ What world and socio-economic events
influenced its production?
➢ Who was the intended audience?
➢ What seems to have been the author’s intention?
➢ Is the text intended as some sort of call to–or for–
action?
Historical Research
➔ Traditionally the first place to go to whenever
there’s a need to do research. It is a place where
books, articles, newspapers, theses and
dissertations, multimedia collections, and other
kinds of potential sources are stored.
➔ Card cataloging system or Online Public Access
Catalog (OPAC)
➔ Research in archives may be a lot more
complicated and too advanced but will provide
you with many sources that are not available in
the usual libraries
◆ Archives - rare, precious, hard to find
books
The Internet
➢ The Internet is a treasure trove of sources for
Philippine history. We must always be careful
whenever we find sources online because it is
easy to get lost, distracted, or find unreliable
materials.
➢ It is best to access legitimate websites to ensure
the authenticity of the documents we use for our
research
Some useful websites for research:
● Official Gazette (www.officialgazette.gov.ph)
● National Library of the Philippines
(http://web.nlp.gov.ph/nlp/)
● Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org)
● National Historical Commission of the
Philippines (https://nhcp.gov.ph/)
Early Philippines
“Philippines” in Early Maritime Asia
➔ Before the Spanish colonization, “the
Philippines” did not exist
➔ Instead, the archipelago comprised hundreds of
territories occupied by different tribal groups who
fought and traded with one another.
➔ The present-day Filipinos are very different from
their predecessors.
➔ Some traits (e.g. body tattooing) are now less
familiar
◆ Among the ancient Filipinos, the
Visayans were the most tattooed people,
compelling the early Spanish writers to
call them the Pintados
◆ Women saw tattoos as a beauty standard/
sign of beauty
◆ Men saw tattoos as a sign of honor (they
add tattoos after winning battles)
➔ However, some social features such as strong
family ties and reliance on sea still remain up to
this day
The Philippines and Southeast Asia
➢ There’s a longstanding belief that the Philippines
was once isolated from the rest of Southeast Asia
and largely unaffected by foreign influences
○ Mainland SEA - buddhism
○ Lower SEA - Islam
➢ But evidence of its economic, linguistic, and
political connections within maritime Asia
suggests that the archipelago was not isolated
Language
● Most languages in the maritime region belong to
the Austronesian family of languages (stems from
people from today’s southern China who became
the ancestors of most Southeast Asians)
○ H. Otley Beyer - waves of migration
theory
○ Austronesians - out of Thailand theory
Family relationships
● Cognatic kinship - families trace descent through
both the male and female lines. (egalitarian)
Religious life
● Animistic - seeing and worshiping divinity in the
surrounding environment, which had the power
to give life or bring harm. (spirit worshiping)
Spatial Arrangement
● patchwork of human settlements, often along
rivers (river-based settlements) and initially
isolated from one another, rather than
concentrated population centers. (fragmented
communities)
Development of Ancient Filipino Society
Spatial Arrangements
➢ People in the archipelago are composed of tribes,
groups, and communities.
➢ Each has its own economic and political system
➢ Early settlements called barangay (Tagalog word
originally meaning “boat” [balangay])
➢ Boatload of related people, their dependents, and
their slaves. Ranging from 30-100 households
➢ Commonly found near rivers and along the coasts
➢ A political community defined by personal
attachment, not territorial location
➢ These kinship groups were led by a datu
Basic Economic Activities
➢ Early settlements were either river-based or
upriver.
○ River-based settlements obtain food
source from the waters;
○ Upriver settlements grew rice and had
access to forests.
➢ They developed certain degree of
interdependence
➢ Simple mining of metal like gold, silver, and gem
stones is widely practiced. Gems and other
precious stones are used as ornaments, jewelries,
or currencies for trade
➢ Women engaged in weaving which is usually
done inside their homes. They weave clothes
from abaca, silk, and other fabrics.
○ Dream weavers
Baylan (Visaya) or Catalonan (Tagalog)
● the spirit ritualist; was typically an elderly
woman of high status or a male transvestite
(therefore female by gender)
● She cultivated contacts among the friendlier
spirits who possessed her in a trance as she
interceded for the community, family, or
individual who sought her services.
● Offerings, sacrifices, ceremonies, and feasting
were the modes of worship.
● The feast would be held in a temporary shelter
built beside the datu’s house
● Spirit ritualists would make offerings of cooked
food, live poultry, and hogs. Later, the
community ate the food and drank quite a lot of
alcohol.
● How does this become functional?
Social Stratification
➢ Social class based on economic production
➢ Though there is collective ownership of land, the
administration and allocation of land for farming
and housing is done by the leader in the name of
the whole community.
★ Datu (Visayas), Lakan/maginoo (Tagalog), Rajah
(Indian), Sultan (Islamic)

Spiritual Arrangements
➢ Practiced animism. Everywhere in the islands,
divinities resided all around people in nature and
were appealed to and appeased regularly.
○ Visayans had a pantheon of divinities,
which they referred to as diwata. The Datu
○ Tagalogs called these anito and had a
principle deity among them, Bathala ● Other titles include rajah or sultan
● From a hereditary class; married endogamously.
★ Animism - spirit worshiping
● Possessed military, judicial, religious, and
★ Monotheistic - One God
entrepreneurial roles
★ Polytheistic - many gods ● Success and power always depended on an
★ Anito - spirits individual’s charisma and valor
★ Bathala - one supreme God
 ● The wealthiest; used to attract and support more ● In the Tagalog region, this class was subdivided
followers. into the lower-status timawa, who did labor in the
● A slave was to be buried with a great datu to serve datu’s fields and waters, and the higher-status
him in the afterlife maharlika, who were more likely to do military
● Distinguished by the way they lived, looked, and service
dressed: ● A man of timawa birth might rise to datuship if
○ Have a large entourage and the many he had the right qualities and opportunities
dependents in his household
○ Added a tattoo with each military The Tao
victory. The most powerful were painted ● Mass of society; common people
from head to toe. ● Farmers, fishers, and artisans—who owed tribute
○ Wore gold, fine cotton, and silk (taxes) to the datu and service in general to the
upper classes.
The Maharlika and Timawa ● Many of these people spent some portion of their
● Warrior-supporters: the people who formed the lives in servitude (alipin)
datu’s entourage, served him as aides and
bodyguards, fought with him as warriors and The Alipin
oarsmen, and surrounded him at feasts ● How people moved into and out of servitude and
● In the Visayas, this class was called timawa. its role in society:
○ Birth ○ Purchase
○ Captivity in wars ○ Punishment for Crimes
○ Indebtedness
● Two Types:
○ Alipin namamahay (Stay out Slave)
○ Alipin sa gigilid (Stay in Slave)
● Not a static or monolithic condition. Upward and downward mobility on complex and regionally varied social
ladders was common
● A child born to slave parents inherited her parents’ status in equal measure.
○ Ganap na Alipin (Full Slave) – both of your parents were slaves
○ Kalahating Alipin (Half Slave) – one parent was slave, the other free
○ Mala-Alipin (Semi Slave) – from a parent who was half-slave, and the other is free
● While a whole household was liable for one member’s debt, their creditor was obliged to release them once the debt
was repaid.

Ancient Political System

➢ The barangay has a system of laws, which were either written or those that formed part of the barangay’s tradition.
➢ Passed on from one generation to the next through oral means
➢ The datu, in consultation of the elders, make up the laws.
➢ After getting their compliance, the umalohokan (village herald) is called to announce the new law to the people
➢ Early Filipinos have their own unique system of justice
➢ Datu serves as the judge, the elders assist him.
➢ Trial is open to all members of the barangay
➢ The accused have the chance to face his or her accuser
➢ The trial is done by giving the accused a difficult test
➢ After the leader and the elders dispense with their judgment on the case, the punishment is immediately carried out
Ancient Culture
➢ Language and Literature - more than 100 languages and dialects exist. The baybayin is the ancient writing system.

The Sultanate
➢ Islam arrived in the Philippines in the late 14th century with Arab and Malay merchants following Southeast Asian
trade networks
➢ The Muslim sultanate in Sulu and Mindanao represent a more developed economic and political system than the
barangay.
➢ The sultanate is a political system which covers up to 20,000 people and a more extensive territory.
➢ The sultan and their clan make up the ruling class.
➢ A sultan may rule over some datus, administer the communal land, and regard their rule as a “divine right”

Trade
➢ Evidence of early shipbuilding indicates that communities also engaged trade with outsiders
➢ There is an active internal and external trade in the islands. Commerce is vibrant between barangays and islands.

The Growth of Commerce

➢ There are already trade relations between native people of the islands and inhabitants of neighboring countries.
➢ In the whole region, Chinese and other foreign traders frequently mention that our ancestors are honest and
industrious traders, as they acknowledge agreements and contracts.

Primary source: The Laguna Copperplate Inscription

● Earliest known written document found in the Philippines. Discovered in Lumban, Laguna in 1989
● It was written in the Kawi Script in a variety of Old Malay containing numerous loanwords from Sanskrit, Old
Javanese. and Old Tagalog
● The document releases its bearer, Namwaran, from a debt in gold amounting to 1 kati and 8 suwarnas (865 grams)

Warfare
➢ Common reasons for going to war:
○ Avenging a killing, mistreatment, or abduction
○ Customary times of year to plunder and capture slaves.
➢ But the situation was not always chaotic:
○ Alliances were made, often through marriage, for friendship and help against mutual enemies. These
alliances yielded hierarchies of chiefs who paid tribute to those above—at once a system of trade and a way
to reinforce the hierarchy

Summary
● Our ancestors developed a relatively high level of civilization.
● Before they were called “Filipino” by Spanish colonizers, they organized communities to have a self-reliant
economy, defined political structure and laws, and a widespread socio-cultural system.
● But this was accounted in a different way by Spanish missionaries with a Western bias and centered in Europe.