GEC 3 Reading in Philippine History

Lesson 1. Definition and Subject Matter

History according to Llewelyn and Thompson (2020) is the study of the past, specifically the people,
societies, events and problems of the past as well as our attempts to understand them. It is a pursuit common to
all human societies.

Candelaria (2018) states that students of general education often dread the subject for its
notoriety in requiring them to memorize dates, places, names, and events from distant eras. This low appreciation
of the discipline may be rooted from the shallow understanding of history's relevance to their lives and to their
respective contexts. While the popular definition of history as
the study of the past is not wrong, 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 or
investigation." History as discipline existed for around 2,400 years and is as old as mathematics and philosophy.
This term was then adapted to classical Latin where it acquired a new definition (Roxas, 2016).

Historia became known as the account of the past of a person or of a group of people through written
documents and historical evidences. That meaning stuck until the early parts of the twentieth century, 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 (Delgado, n.d.).

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 lived with the 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 (San Juan, n.d.).

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,
or personal letters. Kelly (2008) explains that giving premium to written documents essentially invalidate the
history of other civilizations 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 Others got their historical documents burned or destroyed in the events of war or colonization.

Restricting historical evidence as exclusively written is also discrimination against other social classes
who were not recorded in paper. Nobilities, monarchs, the elite, and even the middle class would have their birth,
education, marriage, and death as matters of government and historical record. But what of peasant families or
indigenous groups were not given much thought about being registered to government records? Does the absence
of written documents about them mean that they were people of no history or past? Did they even exist?

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. A few of these examples are oral traditions in forms of epics and
songs, artifacts, architecture, and memory (Launto, n.d.).

History thus became more inclusive and started collaborating with other disciplines as its auxiliary
disciplines. With the aid of archaeologists, 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 the changes that it has undergone. Even scientists like biologists and biochemists can help with the
study of the past through analyzing genetic and DNA patterns of human societies (San Juan, n.d.).
GEC 3 Reading in Philippine History
Lesson 2. Questions and Issues in History
History as a discipline had already turned into a complex and dynamic inquiry. This dynamism inevitably
produced various perspectives on the discipline regarding different questions like: What is history? Why study
history?

And history for whom? These questions can be answered by historiography. In simple terms,
historiography is the history of history. History and historiography should not be confused with each other. The
former's object of study is the past, the events that happened in the past and the causes of such events.

Historiography, the writing of history, especially the writing of history based on the critical examination
of sources, the selection of particular details from the authentic materials in those sources, and the synthesis of
those details into a narrative that stands the test of critical examination. The term historiography also refers to the
theory and history of historical writing (Vann, 2020).

The latter's object of study, on the other hand, is history itself. How certain was a historical text written?
Who wrote it? What was the context of its publication? What particular historical method was employed? What
were the sources used?

Thus, historiography lets the students have a better understanding of history. They do not only get to learn
historical facts, but they are also provided with the understanding of the facts and the historian's contexts. The
methods employed by the historian and the theory and perspective, which guided him, will also be analyzed.
Historiography is important for someone who studies history because it coaches the student to be critical in the
Lessons of history presented to him.

History has played various roles in the past. States use history to unite a nation. It can be used as a tool to
legitimize regimes 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 repeat them. Being
reminded of a great past can inspire people to keep their good practices to move forward.

Positivism
According to Bourdeau (2018), positivism is a school of
thought that emerged between the eighteenth and nineteenth
century. This thought requires evidence before one can claim that
a particular knowledge is true Positivism also entails an objective
means of arriving at a conclusion. In the discipline of history, the
mantra "no document, no history" stems from this very same truth,
where historians were required to show written or historical
narrative, primary documents in order to write a particular
historical narrative Positivist historians are also expected to be
objective and impart just in their arguments but also on their
conduct of historical research.

As a narrative, any history that has been taught and written is always intended for a certain group of
audience. When the illustrados, like Jose Rizal Isabelo de los Reyes, and Pedro Paterno wrote history, they
intended it for the Spaniards so that they would realize that Filipinos are people of their own intellect and culture.

When American historians depicted the Filipino people as uncivilized in their publications, they intended
that narrative for their fellow Americans to justify their colonization of the islands. They wanted the colonization
to appear not as a means of undermining the Philippines sovereignty, but as a civilizing mission to fulfill what
they called as the "white man's burden."
GEC 3 Reading in Philippine History

The same is true for nations which prescribe official versions of their history like North Korea, the Nazi
Germany during the war period, and Thailand. The same was attempted by Marcos in the Philippine during the
1970s.

Post-colonialism
Larena (2018) cited that post-colonialism is the school of thought that emerged in the early twentieth
century when formerly colonized nations grappled with the idea of creating their identities and understanding
their societies against the shadows of their colonial past. Postcolonial history looks at two things in writing history:

 First is to tell the history of their nation that will highlight their identity free from that of colonial
discourse and knowledge.
 Second is to criticize the methods, effects, and idea of colonialism.

Postcolonial history is therefore a reaction and an

alternative to the colonial history that colonial powers created
and taught to their subjects. One of the problems confronted
by history is the accusation that the history is always written
by victors. This connotes that the narrative of the past is
always written from the bias of the powerful and the more
dominant player. For instance, the history of the Second
World War in the Philippines always depicts the United
States as the hero and the Imperial Japanese Army as the
oppressors. Filipinos who collaborated with the Japanese
were lumped in the category of traitors or collaborators.
However, a more thorough historical investigation will reveal
a more nuanced account of the history of that period instead
of a simplified narrative as a story of hero versus villain.