Introduction to History:

Definition, Issues, Sources and

Methodology
Handout 1 A
READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY
Definition and Subject Matter
• History has always been known as the study of the past.
• But it has become boring and often met with dread because of the
practice of memorising places, names, dates.
• This low appreciation of study of history may be rooted from the
shallow understanding of history’s relevance to their lives and to their
respective contexts.
• While the study of history is a study of the past, it does not give
justice to the complexity of the subject and its importance to human
civilization.
• History was derived from the Greek word historia which means
“knowledge acquired through inquiry and investigation.
• History was adapted to classical Latin and became known as the
account of the past of a person or a group of people through written
documents and historical evidences.
• It became the historian’s duty to write about the lives of important
individuals like monarchs, heroes, saints and nobilities.
• History was also focused on writing about wars, revolutions and other
important breakthroughs.
• It is thus important to ask, “what counts as history?”
• Traditional historians believed that “no document, no history”.
• Giving premium to written historical sources (letters, government
records, chroniclers’ accounts) invalidates the history of other
civilisations that do not keep written records.
• Some were keener on passing their history by word of mouth. Others got
their historical documents burned or destroyed in the events of wars or
colonisation.
• Restricting historical evidences as exclusively written is also
discrimination against other social classes who were not recorded on
paper.
• The elites and middle class would have their birth, education, marriage,
and death as matters of government and historical record.
• But what of peasant families who were not given much thought about
being registered to government records? Did they even exist?
• Historians started to use other kinds of historical sources which may
not be in a written form but were just as valid. Examples are epics and
songs, artefacts, architecture and memory.
• History thus became more inclusive and started collaborating with
other disciplines as its auxiliary disciplines.
• With the aid of archeologists, historians can use artefacts to study past
civilisations that were ignored in the past because of lack of
documents.
• Linguists can also be helpful in tracing historical evolutions, past
connections among different groups, and flow of cultural influence by
studying languages and the changes that it has undergone.
• Biologists and biochemists can help study the past through analysing
genetics and DNA patterns of human societies.
• History had played various roles:
• States use history to unite a nation.
• It can be used to legitimise regime and forge a sense of
collective identity through collective memory. Lessons
from the past can be used to make sense of the present.
• Learning of past mistakes can help people to not to repeat
them.
• Being reminded of the glorious past can inspire people to
keep their good practices and move forward.
• As a narrative, history that has been taught and written is
always intended for a certain group of audience
• When the llustrados wrote history, they intended it for the
Spaniards so that they would realise that Filipinos are
people of their own culture and intellect.
• When the Americans depicted the Filipino people as
uncivilized in their publications, they intended that
narrative for their fellow Americans to justify their
colonization of the islands.
• History as written by victors
• The narrative of the past is always written from the bias of the
powerful and the more dominant player.
• For instance, the history of WW2 in the Philippines always depicts
the US as heroes and Japan as the oppressors.
• Filipinos who collaborated with the Japanese were categorised as
traitors.
• A more thorough investigation could reveal a more nuanced account
of history of some period rather than a simplified narrative as story of
villain versus heroes.
Questions and Issues in History
• Why study history? And history for whom?
• These questions can be answered by historiography.
• Historiography is the history of history.
• History is the study of the events that happened in the past and the
causes of such events.
• Historiography is the study of history itself. (How was a certain
historical text was written? Who wrote it? What was the context of its
publication?)
End of Presentation