ALDERSGATE COLLEGE READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND EDUCATION MARY GLENNE G. CAINAR

MODULE 1 INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY: DEFINITION, ISSUES, SOURCES, AND METHODOLOGY

OVERVIEW

This module introduces history as a discipline and as a narrative. It presents the definition of the history, which
transcends the common definition of history as the study of the past. This module also discusses several issues in history
that consequently opens up for the theoretical aspects of the discipline. The distinction between primary and secondary
sources is also discussed in relation to the historical subject matter being studied and the historical methodology employed
by the historian. Ultimately this module also tackles the task of the historian as the arbiter of facts and evidences in making
thus interpretation and forming historical narrative

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, the student should be able to

LEARNING FOCUS

LESSON 1
DEFINITION AND SUBJECT MATTER
WHAT IS HISTORY?
 derived from the Greek word historia which means “knowledge acquired through inquiry or investigation.”
 Historia- known as the account of the past of a person or of a group of people through written documents
and historical evidences.
 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 as any other academic disciplines, history progressed and opened up to the possibility of valid historical sources,
which were not limited to written documents, like;

 Government records,
 Chroniclers’ accounts, and
 Personal letters.
Some were keener on passing their history by word of mouth. Others got their historical documents burned or
destroyed in the events of war or colonization. Restricting historical evidence as exclusively written is also a discrimination
against other social classes who were not recorded in paper.

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ALDERSGATE COLLEGE READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY
COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND EDUCATION MARY GLENNE G. CAINAR
This loophole was recognized by historians who started using other kinds of historical sources, which may not be in
written form but were just as valid.

Examples:
 Oral traditions- (epics and songs)
 Artifacts
 Architecture
 Memory

With the aid of archeologists’, historians can use artifacts from a bygone era to study ancient civilizations that were
formerly ignored in history 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 language and changes that it has undergone.

LESSON 2
QUESTIONS AND ISSUES IN HISTORY

 What is history?
 Why study history?
 And history for whom?
These questions can be answered by historiography.

HISTORIOGRAPHY
 The history of history or history itself (i.e., How was a certain historical text written? Who wrote it? What was the
context of its publication? What particular historical method was employed? What were the sources used?).
 It is provided with the understanding of the fact’s and historian’s contexts.
 It is important for someone who studies history because it teaches the student to be critical in the lessons of history
presented to him.

Lessons from the past can be used to make sense of

POSITIVISM
 This school of thought that emerged between the 18 th and 19th century.
 This thought requires empirical and observable evidence before can claim that a particular knowledge is true.
 It also entails an objective means of arriving at a conclusion.

POSTCOLONLIALISM
 It is a school of thought that emerged in the early 20th century when formerly colonized nations grappled with the
idea of creating identities and understanding their societies against the shadows of their colonial past.
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ALDERSGATE COLLEGE READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY
COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND EDUCATION MARY GLENNE G. CAINAR
LESSON 3
HISTORY AND THE HISTORIAN
 It is the HISTORIAN’s job not to seek historical evidences and facts but also to interpret these facts. “Facts cannot
speak for themselves.”
 it is the job of the historian to give meaning to these facts and organize them into a timeline, establish causes, and
write history
 Meanwhile, the historian is not a blank paper who mechanically interprets and analyzes present historical fact.
 he is a person of his own who is influenced by his own context, environment, ideology, education, and influences,
among others. In that sense, his interpretation of the historical facts is affected by his context and circumstances.
 Thus, in one way or another, history is always subjective.

HISTORICAL METHODOLOGY

 Comprises certain techniques and rules that historians follow in order properly utilize sources and historical
evidences in writing history.
 Certain rules apply in cases of conflicting accounts in different sources, and on how to properly treat eyewitness
accounts and oral sources as valid historical evidence.
 In doing so, historical claims done by historians and the arguments that they forward in their historical claims done
by historians and the arguments that they forward in their historical writings, while may be influenced by the
historian’s inclinations, can still be validated by using reliable evidences and employing correct and meticulous
historical methodology.

HISTORICAL SOURCES
 it can be classified between these two categories depends on the historical subject being studied.

A. PRIMARY SOURCES
 Those sources produced at the same time as the event, period, or subject being studied.
B. SECONDARY SOURCES
 Those sources, which were produced by an author who used primary sources to produce the material. In other
words, secondary sources are historical sources.

EXTERNAL CRITICISM
 It is the practice of verifying the authenticity of evidence by examining its physical characteristics;
consistency with the historical characteristics of the time when it was produced; and the materials
used for the evidence.
 Ex. Quality of the paper, the type of the ink, and the language and words used in the materials.

INTERNAL CRITICISM
 It is the examination of the truthfulness of the evidence. It looks at the content of the source and
examines the circumstances of its production. It looks at the truthfulness and 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, among others.

C. TERTIARY SOURCES
 Publications that summarize and digest the information in primary and secondary sources to provide
background on a topic, idea, or event.
Ex. Encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, indexes, almanacs, travel guides, field guides and timelines.
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ALDERSGATE COLLEGE READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY
COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND EDUCATION MARY GLENNE G. CAINAR

PHILIPPINE HISTORIOGRAPHY
 Ancient Filipinos narrated their history through communal songs and epics that they passed orally from a generation
to another.
 When the Spaniards came, their chroniclers started recording their observations through written accounts.
 They saw the age before colonization as a dark period in the history of the islands, until they brought light through
Western thought and Christianity.
 They saw the precolonial society as a luminous age that ended with darkness when the colonizers captured their
freedom.
 They believed that the light would come again once the colonizers were evicted from the Philippines.

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