READINGS IN THE

PHILIPPINE
HISTORY
 DEFINITION AND SUBJECT MATTER

• History is the study of the past.

• History was derived from the Greek
word historia which means
“knowledge acquired through inquiry
or investigation.”
• It is discipline existed for around 2,400
years and is old as mathematics, and
philosophy.
 DEFINITION AND SUBJECT MATTER

• Historia (classical Latin) is the account

of the past of a person or of a group
of people through written documents
and historical evidences.
• History was focused on writing about
wars, revolutions, and other important
breakthroughs.
 DEFINITION AND SUBJECT MATTER

• Traditional historians lived with the

mantra of “no document no history.”
• History progressed, which were not
limited to written documents.
• Restricting historical evidence as
exclusively written is a discrimination
against other social classes.
 DEFINITION AND SUBJECT MATTER

• Historians used other kinds of

historical sources like epics, songs,
artifacts, architecture, and memory
that are valid as written documents.
• History started collaborating with other
disciplines .
 DEFINITION AND SUBJECT MATTER

• Linguists can also be helpful in tracing

historical evolutions, past connections
among different groups, and flow of
cultural influence.
DIFFERENT
BRANCHES
OF HISTORY
QUESTIONS
AND ISSUES
IN HISTORY
• History as a discipline has already
turned into a complex and dynamic
inquiry.

What is history?
Why study history?
History for whom?
• Historiography is the history of history.
• 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?
• History unites a nation.
• Tool to 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
• This thought requires empirical and
observable evidence before one can
claim that a particular knowledge is
true.
• Historians are expected to be
objective and impartial.
• Taught and written history is always
intended for certain groups of
audiences.

Ilustrados wrote history intended for the

Spaniards.
 POSTCOLONIALISM
• Formerly colonized nations grappled
with the idea of creating their identities
and understanding their societies
against the shadows of their colonial
past.

1. Highlight their identity free from the

colonial discourse and knowledge.
2. Criticize the methods, effects, and
idea od colonialism.
Problems confronted by history:
• History is always written by victors.
• It is written from the bias of the
powerful and the more dominant
player.

Example: American as hero during the

Second World War in the Philippines.
X and Y
1. What is history?
2. Why study
history?
3. Differentiate
history and
historiography.
4. History should
be subjective or
objective? Why?
5. Explain the
mantra: No
document, no
history.
 HISTORY
AND
HISTORIAN
• It is the historian’s job not just to seek
historical evidence and facts but also
to interpret those facts.

• Facts cannot speak for themselves.

• The historian gives meaning to these

facts and organize them into a
timeline, establishes causes, and write
history.
• He is a person of his own who is
influenced by his own context,
environment, ideology, education, and
influences, among others,

• His interpretation of the historical past

is affected by his context and
circumstances.

• His subjectivity will inevitably influence

the process of his historical research.
Can history still be considered an
academic and scientific inquiry if the
historian is subjective?
• Historical research requires rigor.
• Even history cannot ascertain
absolute objectivity, it remains
scientific.
• Historical Methodology comprises
certain techniques and rules that
historians follow in utilizing evidences
properly.
• They use different sources.
• Check the validity of evidences.
Historical claims done by historians and
the arguments that they forward in their
historical writings, while may be
influenced by the historian’s inclination,
can still be validated by using reliable
evidence and employing correct and
meticulous historical methodology.
While bias is inevitable, the historian can
balance this out by relying to evidence
that back up his claim.
 THE ANNALES SCHOOL OF
HISTORY

• School of history born in France.

• Annales scholars: Lucian Febvre,
Marc Bloch, Fernand Braudel, and
Jacques Le Goff.
• The studied social history and longer
historical periods.
 THE ANNALES SCHOOL OF
HISTORY
• Annales thinkers married history with
other disciplines like geography,
anthropology, archaeology, and
linguistics.

• This collaboration has brought the

Annales to achieve great success in
expanding the realm of history by
introducing new topics, new sources,
and new questions.
HISTORICAL
SOURCES
• Historical sources are historian’s most
important tool.
• Sources can be classified between
primary and secondary sources.
 PRIMARY SOURCES

• Sources produced at the same time as

the event, period, or subject being
studied.
• Commonwealth Constitution
Convention of 1935
- Minutes of the convention
- Newspaper clippings
- Philippine Commission
Reports
 PRIMARY SOURCES

of the US Commissioners
- Records of the convention
- Draft of the Constitution
- Photographs of the event
• Eyewitness
• Archival documents, artifacts,
memorabilia, letters, census, and
government records.
 SECONDARY SOURCES

• Produced by an author who used

primary sources to produce the
material.
• These are historical sources which
studied a certain historical subject.
 SECONDARY SOURCES

• Philippine Revolution of 1896

- Students can read Teodoro
Agoncillos Revolt of Masses: The Story
of Bonifacio and the Katipunan published
originally in 1956.
-Agoncillo used primary sources
like documents of the Katipunan, and
interview with the veterans.
• Both primary and secondary sources
are useful in writing and learning
history.
• Need to thoroughly scrutinize these
sources to avoid deception and to
come up with the historical truth.
• The historian should conduct an
external and internal criticism of the
source.
 EXTERNAL CRITICISM

• Practice of verifying the authenticity of

evidence by examining its physical
characteristics; consistency with the
historical characteristic of time when it
was produced; and the materials used
for the evidence.
 EXTERNAL CRITICISM

• Quality of the paper

• Type of the ink
• Language and words used
 INTERNAL CRITICISM

• Examination of truthfulness of the

evidence.
• Content of the source.
• Factuality by looking at the author of
the source, its context, the agenda
behind its creation.
• The knowledge which informed it, and
its intended purpose.
 The Hoax Code of Kalantiaw

• Set of rules contained in an epic

Maragtas
• Allegedly written by a certain Datu
Kalantiaw
• Sold to the National Library
• William Henry Scott debunked the
authenticity of the code.
 Ferdinand Marcos “Ang Maharlika”

• Claimed that he was a decorated

World War II soldier who led a guerrilla
unit called Ang Maharlika.
• Marcos had war medals to show.
• Disproven when historians
counterchecked Marcos’s claims with
the war records of the united states.
 PHILIPPINE HISTORIOGRAPHY

• Ancient Filipinos: communal songs

and epics that they passed orally.
• Spanish Colonization: written, bipartite
view.
• Early Nationalist: tripartite view
 PHILIPPINE HISTORIOGRAPHY

• Zeus Salazar introduced a new

guiding principle in writing and
teaching history: pantayong-pananaw
(For us – from us perspective)
ASSESSMENT
I. Write F if the statement is True and T
if the statement is False.

1. History is the study of the past.

2. Historical sources that were not
written should not be used in writing
history.
3. The subject of historiography is the
history itself.
4. History has no use for the present,
thus, the saying “past is past” is true.
5. History is limited to the story of a
hero versus a villain.
6. Only primary sources may be
used in writing history.
7. There are three types of sources:
primary, secondary, and tertiary
sources.
8. External criticism is done by
examining the physical
characteristics of a source.
9. Internal criticism is done by looking as
a source’s quality of paper and type of
ink, among others.

10. The historians are only source of

history.
I. Differentiate the following using Venn
diagram.

1. Primary sources and Secondary

sources
2. Internal criticism and External
criticism

Primary Secondary
External Internal