GE 2

Readings in the
Philippine History
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY: DEFINITION, ISSUES,
SOURCES, AND METHODOLOGY
TARGET LEARNING OUTCOMES:

After the report the students should be able to:

a. Understand the meaning of history as an academic discipline and to be familiar with

the underlying philosophy and methodology of the discipline.

b. Apply the knowledge in historical methodology and philosophy in assessing and

analyzing existing historical narratives.

c. Examine and assess critically the value of historical evidences and sources.

d. Appreciate the importance of history in the social and national life of the Philippines.
History!
What is history?
 History is the study of the 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.

 History is, communication of, and teaching about that knowledge. Bodies of knowledge about the past
produced by historians, together with everything that is involved in the production

 History often dread the subject for its notoriety in requiring them to memorize dates, places, names, and
events from distant eras.

 History (derived from Greek (historía) “which means knowledge acquired by investigation.”

 History as a discipline existed for around 2,400 years and is as old as Mathematics and Philosophy.
Historia!
Historia became known as the account of the past of a person or a
group of people through written documents and historical
evidences.

 History became an important academic discipline. 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.
What counts as history?
 Traditional historians lived with mantra of “no document, no history.”
 It means that unless a written document can prove a certain historical event, then it cannot be considered
as a historical fact.

 But other got their historical documents burned or destroyed in the events of war or colonization.
 Restricting historical evidence as exclusively written is also discrimination against other social classes who
were not recorded in paper.
 But as any other academic disciplines history progressed and opened up to the possibility of valid historical
sources which where not limited to written documents like government records, chronicler’s account, or
personal letters.
 Nobilities, monarchs the elite, and even middle-class would have their birth, education, marriage, and death,
as matter of government and historical record.
Different types of written history include :

•Contemporary letters

•Eyewitness accounts

•Official documents

•Political declarations and decrees

•Administrative texts
Different types of unwritten history include:
• Archaeology
• Oral Tradition
• Linguistic
• Ethnography
• Art forms/History
• Ethnobotany
• Ethnozoology
• Ethnomusicology
• Numismatics
• Serology
NATURE OF HISTORY:
a. History is a study of the present in the light of the past.
 To understand the present, we need to understand first the past. One cannot leap frog and ignore the past.
b. History is the study of man.
 As stated above, history focuses with the struggle of man through the ages. It trace show man have developed through
the ages and how he has grown out from the past.
c. History provides an objective record of happenings.
 Historians based their data on original sources and make them free of subjective interpretation.
d. History is multisided.
 It covers all man’s aspect of life (political, cultural, social, etc.)
e. History is not only narration of past but it also includes analysis.
 History is not confined with narrative accounts. It dissects and explains the occurrence of the event and how it changes
the society over time.
f. Continuity and coherence are the necessary requisite of history.
 History monitors the changes and development of the society from generation togeneration, after the occurrence to the
even to justify the essence of continuity.
g. History is comprehensive.
 History is not limited to one period, person, country alone.
HISTORY AND OTHER FIELD OF SOCIAL SCIENCES:
a. History and Political Science
 For you to understand the system of government of a certain place you need first to
know the its background by looking back to its history. The structure of government,
the rights and duties of the citizens, laws and regulations, are products of the
evolution from their past.
b. History and Economics
 Human economic activities today evolved from hunting and gathering society of the
past.
c. History and Sociology
 Formation of communities, birth of culture, social change within a community can be
explained by history why.
d. History and Ethics
 Mistakes in the past provide moral and ethical implication on the present and the
future. It serves as the guidance toward an acceptable behavior.
e. History and Psychology
 Psychology provides understanding of motives and actions of human and societies
while history give us the idea on the behavior of the people of the past. Using
analogy, it is possible to predict behaviors and actions of present leaders. With
history, it enables the consciousness of the people that enable them to be vigilant on
the possibilities of their leaders to do wrong acts.
f. History and Geography
 According to NationalGeographic.com “when learning about historical topics, it can
be very helpful to simultaneously study region’s geography”
QUESTIONS AND ISSUES IN
HISTORY:
HISTORY HISTORIOGRAPHY
 Objects of study is the PAST (events that happened  “History of history”
in the past, and the causes of such events.)  HISTORY ITSELF (How’s was a certain historical text
 History is systematic study and documentation of written? Who wrote it? What was the context of it’s
the human past. publication? What historical method was employed? What
were the sources used?)
 Historiography lets you have better understanding of history.
 Historiography is the study of the methods and principles
used by historians to develop history as an academic
discipline.
POSITIVIS
M!
Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by
definition or positive—meaning a posteriori facts derived by reason and logic from sensory
experience.

Positivism laid the foundation for the science of society that tried to understand human
behavior on the basis of data, reasoning, and logic.

Positivism is a philosophy which states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific
knowledge. Positivism was central to the foundation of academic sociology.
Positivism may also refer to:
• Logical positivism- a school of philosophy that combines empiricism
with a version of rationalism.
• Sociological positivism- a sociological paradigm.
• Legal positivism- a school of thought in jurisprudence and the
philosophy of law.
• Positivist school (criminology)- attempts to find scientific
objectivity for the measurement and quantification of criminal
behavior.
• Positivism in Poland- a socio-cultural movement in Poland after the
1863 January Uprising.
POSTCOLONIALI
SM!
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy
of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of
colonized people and their lands.

Postcolonial history looks at two things in writing history:

to tell the history of their nation that will highlight

their identity free from that of colonial discourse
to criticize the methods, effects, and
and knowledge. ideas of colonialism.
HISTORICAL
METHODOLOGY!
Historical methodology refers to the process by which
historians gather evidence and formulate ideas about the
past. In order to formulate ideas about the past, it is Historical methodology
necessary to examine the primary and secondary sources.
comprises certain techniques
and rules that historians
 Historical method is the collection of techniques
follow in order to properly
and guidelines that historians use to research and utilized sources and
write histories of the past.
 The historical method focuses on the origin and
historical evidences in
evolution of the subject of study, and is specified writing history.
in a chronology of times and milestones.
I. Primary source
II.Secondary source
Primary Source!
• Primary source of history is an original document or object that was created at the time of the historical event or by
someone who witnessed it.

• Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects that were created at the time under
study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events, usually at a distance
of time or place.

Examples of primary sources are:

 Newspapers
 Personal journals/diaries/memoirs
 Letters from the time period being studied
 Artifacts like artwork and tools
 Recordings
 Books
Secondary source!
• Secondary Source’ can be defined in two ways: it is anything about a historical event which was created using primary
sources, and/or which was one or more stages removed from the time period and the event.

• Secondary sources can include history books, articles, websites like this one (other websites might be a primary source
to ‘contemporary history’.) Not everything ‘old’ is a primary historical source: plenty of medieval or ancient works are
secondary sources based on now lost primary sources, despite being of great age.

Examples of secondary sources in history include:

 Books
 Articles
 Histories
 Encyclopedias
 Dictionaries
Thank
you!
Reference:
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-history-collection-of-definitions-171282

https://archives.history.ac.uk/history-in-focus/Whatishistory/marwick1.html#:~:text=Thus%20the%20best%20and%20most
%20concise,knowledge.%202.%20The%20Necessity%20for%20History.&text=Thus%20the%20best%20and,The%20Necessity
%20for%20History.&text=best%20and%20most%20concise,knowledge.%202.%20The%20Necessity

https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/colegio-de-santo-cristo-de-burgos/performing-arts/readings-in-phil-history/12853431

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History#Etymology

https://youtu.be/nOrQgsbjbRQ?si=gWGfHxtI2pbwxgDF

https://www.lifepersona.com/what-are-the-written-sources-of-history

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1048/sources-of-history/

https://short-q.com/what-is-the-difference-between-written-and-unwritten-sources/#:~:text=What%20are%20the%20unwritten
%20sources%20of%20history%3F%20This,Art%20forms%2FHistory%2C%20Ethnobotany%2C%20Ethnozoology%2C
%20Ethnomusicology%2C%20Numismatics%2C%20and%20Serology.

https://youtu.be/P-I4Bay5SXo?si=ZK36rlLXbCX2md1u