READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

HISTORY History and Ethics

derived from the Greek word “historia” means Mistakes in the past provide moral and ethical implica-
“knowledge acquired through inquiry or investiga- tion on the present and the future. It serves as the guid-
tion”. ance toward an acceptable behavior.
Other scholars defined history as follows be- History and Psychology
low: Psychology provides understanding of motives and
“History is the record of what one age finds worthy of actions of human and societies while history give us
note in another.” – Burckhardt the idea on the behavior of the people of the past. Us-
“History, in its broadest sense, is everything that ever ing analogy, it is possible to predict behaviors and ac-
happened.” – Henry Johnson tions of present leaders. With history, it enables the
“The value and interest of history depend largely on consciousness of the people that enable them to be vig-
the degree in which the present is illuminated by ilant on the possibilities of their leaders to do wrong
the past.” – V.S. Smith acts.
“History is the story of man’s struggle through the ages History and Geography
against nature and the elements; against wild beasts According to NationalGeographic.com “when learning
and jungle and some of his own kind who have about historical topics, it can be very helpful to simul-
tried to keep him down and to exploit him for their taneously study region’s geography”.
own benefit.” – Jawaharlal Nehru History vs. Historiography
NATURE OF HISTORY HISTORY HISTORIOGRAPHY
History is a study of the present in the light of the
past. Objects of study is the “History of history”
To understand the present, we need to understand first PAST (events that hap- HISTORY ITSELF
the past. One cannot leapfrog and ignore the past. pened in the past, and (How’s was a
History is the study of man. the causes of such certain historical
As stated above, history focuses with the struggle of events) text written?,
man through the ages. It traces how man have de- who wrote it?,
veloped through the ages and how he has grown What was the
out from the past.
History provides an objective record of happenings. context of its
Historians based their data on original sources and publication?,
make them free of subjective interpretation. What historical
History is multisided. method was em-
It covers all man’s aspect of life (political, cultural, ployed?, What
social, etc.) were the sources
History is not only narration of past but it also in-
cludes analysis.
History is not confined with narrative accounts. It dis- Positivism—In the discipline of history, the mantra
sects and explains the occurrence of the event and
how it changes the society over time. “no document, no history” stems from this very same
Continuity and coherence are the necessary requi- truth, where historians were required to show written
site of history. primary documents in order to write a particular his-
History monitors the changes and development of the torical narrative.
society from generation to generation, after the oc-
currence to the even to justify the essence of conti- Post-colonialism
nuity. Is the school of thought that emerged in the early 20th
History is comprehensive. century when formerly colonized nations grappled
History is not limited to one period, person, country with the idea of creating their identities and under-
alone. standing their societies against the shadows of their
HISTORY AND OTHER FIELD OF SOCIAL SCI- colonial’s past.
ENCES
Two Things in Writing History:
History and Political Science
For you to understand the system of government of a Tell the history of their nation that will highlight their
identity free from that colonial discourse and
certain place you need first to know the its back- knowledge.
ground by looking back to its history. The structure of To criticize the methods, effects, and idea of colonial-
government, the rights and duties of the citizens, laws ism.
and regulations, are products of the evolution from Philippine Historiography and for whom?
their past. Underwent several changes since the precolonial peri-
History and Economics od until present.
Human economic activities today evolved from hunt- Ancient FILIPINOs narrated their history through
ing and gathering society of the past. communal songs and epics that they passed orally
History and Sociology form a generation to another.
Formation of communities, birth of culture, social
change within a community can be explained by his-
tory why.
READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

HISTORICAL SOURCES LEARNING ACTIVITY

PRIMARY SOURCES Go to pages 12 to 27 and choose one of the following
Are those sources produced at the same time as the
readings:
event, period, or subject being studied. Original, first
hand record or account or artifact that has survived 1. A Brief Summary of the First Voyage around the
from the past; it has direct involvement with the event World by Magellan by Antonio Pigafetta (16th
being investigated. Century).
Three Types of Written Sources 2. The KKK and the “Kartilya ng Katipunan”
Narrative sources or literary sources tell a story or 3. Reading the “Proclamation of the Philippine In-
message. These include diaries, films, biographies, dependence”
leading philosophical works and scientific works. 4. A Glance at Selected Philippine Political Carica-
Diplomatic sources include charter and other legal doc- ture in Alfred McCoy’s Philippine Cartoons:
uments which observe a set of format. Political Caricature of American Era (1900-
Social documents are record created by organizations, 1941)
such as register of births and tax records. 5. Revisiting Corazon Aquino’s Speech Before the
SECONDARY SOURCES U.S. Congress
Are those sources produced by an author who used pri- After reading , please answer the following questions
mary sources to produce a material. Account of the in a 1 whole yellow pad paper.
past created after the event or created from primary  What does the document or artifact say?
sources.  What was the provenance or source of the docu-
ment/artifact?
They are created by a person or persons who has/have  Who authored it (if applicable)?
the necessary distance in time and involvement from  What was the context of the primary source’s pro-
the event, movement, battle, etc. to write a less person-
al account. duction?
•I-nterprets, D-escribes, E-valuates, A-nalyzes Follow this format
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CRITICISM
Name: Date:
INTERNAL CRITICISM
Subject/Subject Code: Instructor:
The examination of the truthfulness and factuality of
the evidence. It looks at the content of the source and
examines the circumstance of its production. It could
be done by looking at the author, its context, agenda,
the purpose behind its creation.

Internal criticism is textual criticism, in involves factor

such as competence, good faith, position and bias of
the author (Sanchez, 1980).
It likewise determines the credibility of the document.
EXTERNAL CRITICISM
It is the practice of verifying the authenticity of evi-
dence by examining its physical characteristics; con-
sistency with the historical characteristics of the time
when it was produced; and the materials for the evi-
dence.

It also refers to the genuineness of the documents a

researcher used in a historical study. Questions that
illustrate external criticism include: Who was the au-
thor, what was his/her qualifications, personality and,
position? How soon after the events was the document
and is related to other document?

Examples of the things that will be examined when

conducting, external criticism of a document includes
the quality of the paper, the type of ink, and the lan-
guage and the words used in the material among oth-
ers.

External criticism conducts analysis using science. It

applies physical and technical test to the document.
Example: Quality of paper, type of ink, the language
and words