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LEARNING MATERIAL I
INTRODUCTION TO PHILIPPINE HISTORY
AND ITS SOURCES

Lesson 1 Meaning and Relevance

of History

Lesson 2 Sources of History

Lesson 3 External and Internal

Criticism

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INTRODUCTION TO PHILIPPINE HISTORY AND ITS SOURCES

INTRODUCTION

This learning material presents the study of history in general and selects
historical events in Philippine History as topics to be discussed. It is hoped that you
will learn to appreciate history in general and Philippine history in particular as both
science and way of life and the reason human exists today is because of the
significant events in the past. In this material, we get to appreciate the beauty and
richness of our own history and view them in numerous perspectives.

OBJECTIVES

After studying the module, you should be able to:

1. evaluate primary sources for their credibility, authenticity and provenance

2. analyze the context, content, and perspective of different kinds of primary
sources.
3. determine the contribution of different kinds of primary sources in
understanding Philippine History
4. develop critical and analytical skills with exposure to primary sources

LEARNING GUIDE

There are four lessons in this material. Read each lesson carefully then answer
the exercises/activities to find out how much you have benefited from it. Work on
these exercises carefully and submit your output to your instructor/get ready with the
recitation during Face to Face classes.

In case you encounter difficulty, discuss this with your instructor during the
face-to-face meeting or contact your instructor through social media or any online
modality during the time agreed upon for consultation or during consultation hours.

Good luck and happy reading!!!

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Lesson 1

 Meaning and
Relevance of History

I. Defining Histor
“History is not just a catalogue of events put in the right order like a railway
timetable”- A.J.P. Taylor

What is history? How is it different from other disciplines or other forms of

writing? How is it the same? Take a look at the following definitions of history. Which
ones do you agree with? Underline the best definition of history.

HISTORY came from the Greek terminology “historia” which means learning by
inquiry. It deals with the study of past events, the beliefs and desires, practices, and
institutions of human beings.

It is the study of change over time, and it covers all aspects of human society.
Political, social, economic, scientific, technological, medical, cultural, intellectual,
religious and military developments are all part of history. Usually professional
historians specialize in a particular aspect of history, a specific time period, a certain
approach to history or a specific geographic region.

History is…

A recitation of unrelated facts that do not contribute to a larger story.

An agreed upon set of facts or a forever-fixed story that is never subjected to changes
and updates.

A simple acceptance of what is written about a historical topic, event, or person.

A simple historical chronology of famous dates, incidents and people.

A strict reliance solely on the past with no examination of how the past has
influenced the present or how it may influence the future.

About one absolute truth, one particular perspective, or one set of facts and figures.

A chronological storytelling in its finest form; it sequentially weaves together many

related historical and contemporary events and ideas that are linked to a larger story.

Historians are individuals who write about history. They seek to understand
arduous historical research to come up with meaningful and organized rebuilding of
the past. It is a historian’s duty to draw insights from the ideas and realities that
shaped the lives of men and women and the society as a whole. Historians who write
history emphasize the value of primary sources, that is those sources actually dating
from a particular time period, while understanding the limitations of such sources.
Non-historians read books or watch documentaries, while historians do that plus go to
archives in search of original records.

No historian can be 100% objective, but historians try to recognize their own
limitations and biases. Historians try not to place the values, beliefs, behaviors, and
attitudes of the present onto the topics they study. Historians try to understand their

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topics in the context of how and why people of that era thought and behaved, and not
how people think and act today.

a. NATURE OF HISTORY

History is interpretative; it invites students to debate multiple perspectives,

offer their opinions and educated interpretations, and challenge existing beliefs.

History is revisionist in scope; it is an on-going conversation and a constant

process of reexamining the past and deconstructing myths based upon new
discoveries, evidence and perspectives.

History is a constant process of questioning; it requires questioning the texts,

examining them with a critical eye, and asking new questions.

History is integrative of many disciplines; it incorporates geography,

literature, art, sociology, economics, and political science.

History is inclusive; it ensures that the experiences of all classes, regions, and
ethno-racial groups, as well as both genders, are included.

History incorporates historiography; it includes many different interpretations

of historical events written by many different historians.

History is relevant; it uses past experiences to explain what is important in our

lives today.

WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY?

Studying the past opens the way to better understanding how we came to be
who we are now. It is looking deeply into the roots of our society now. It gives us a
wider and deeper realization of why these things in the modern times exist.

Looking at the past lets us see the world through different eyes – which leads
us to being more appreciative on human diversity, traditions, lifestyle, culture, and
beliefs.

IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY
✓ It helps people understand people and societies.
✓ It serves as an art and entertainment.
✓ It involves a sense of beauty and excitement and another perspective on human
life and society.
✓ It contributes to moral understanding.
✓ It provides identity
✓ It is essential for good citizenship.
✓ It encourages people to have a broad perspective.
✓ It is an access to the laboratory of human experience.
✓ It helps develop good social and moral values which are vital in a multi-racial
society.

RELEVANCE OF HISTORY TODAY

✓ It enhances the ability to assess evidence.
✓ It strengthens the ability to assess conflicting interpretations.
✓ It provides experience in assessing past examples of change.

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✓ It encourages the appreciation of various aspects of human heritage.

✓ It inculcates reverence of the past and thereby developing a sense of belonging
to the nation.
✓ It inculcates values such as loyalty, perseverance, propriety, people’s welfare,
religious tolerance, and racial harmony.
✓ It provides learning on how to appreciate other societies, their cultures and
politics.
✓ It provides recognition of the fact that the way people see and judge things is
conditioned by the society within which they live.

HISTORICAL METHOD AND HISTORIOGRAPHY

The practice of historical writing is called historiography, the traditional
method in doing historical research that focuses on gathering documents from
different libraries and archives to come up with a pool of evidences needed in making
a descriptive or analytical narrative.

The process of critically examining and analyzing the records and survivals of
the past is called historical method. The imaginative reconstruction of the data
derived by that process is called historiography. By these, historians reconstruct.

Historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians

use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the
form of accounts of the past. The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of
a sound historical method is raised in the philosophy of history as a question of
epistemology.

THINK BIG!!!

1. LEARNING ACTIVITY
a. What role does history take in the study of Philippine society, culture,
and identity?
b. Expound the phrase “history is like a beam of light from a flashlight”.
c. Revisit your own life stories in the past. Make a timeline of your life from
childhood up to now by identifying only the most memorable/important
events that happened in your life and had a tremendous impact. Use a
fishbone diagram or any possible timeline format.
d. From the timeline you made, how does your past influence your present
being, your identity, and behavior.

Make your work creatively, you may use recycled materials/brochure

style/portfolio/interactive notebook/comic strip etc.

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Rubrics for the activity

CRITERIA 5 4 3 2
Content The content of the video is The content of the video is The content of the video has The content of the video is
well aligned to the syllabus of aligned to the syllabus of the 1-2 topics which are not not aligned to the syllabus of
the course course aligned to the syllabus of the the course
course

Understanding of topic The students understood The students understood the The students somewhat The students hardly
well the sequence of the sequence of the topic understood the sequence of understood the sequence of
topic assigned to them assigned to them the topic assigned to them the topic assigned to them

Organization The video presentation was The video presentation was The video presentation has The video presentation was
easier to follow easy to follow few lapses that made the difficult to follow
presentation hard to follow

Inventiveness The students integrate the The students integrate some The students integrate few The students integrate
latest and most applications applications and designs in applications and designs in traditional yet few
and designs in social media social media social media applications and designs in
that attracts the viewers social media

Lesson 2

SOURCES OF
HISTORY

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a
child.”- Marcus Tullius Cicero

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed

under CC BY-NC-ND

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed

under CC BY-SA

Most historical source materials can be grouped into four basic categories:
documents, numerical records, oral statements, and relics.

1. Documents are written or printed materials that have been produced in one
form or another sometime in the past.
2. Numerical records include any type of numerical data in printed or
handwritten form.
3. Oral statements include any form of statement made orally by someone.

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4. Relics are any objects whose physical or visual characteristics can provide
some information about the past. (Fraenkel&Wallen, n.d.)

In studying and writing history, historical sources are much of importance.

Historical data are sourced from artifacts that were left by the past. There are two
general kinds of historical sources; direct or PRIMARY and indirect or SECONDARY.

PRIMARY sources are original, firsthand account of an event or period that are
usually written or made during or close to the event. These materials are produced by
people or groups directly involved in the event being studied. These sources are often
tagged as eyewitnesses, which include materials ranging from diaries, photographs,
video and voice recordings, legal and official documents, letters, government records,
interviews with witnesses, drawings, maps, sculpture, paintings, and published and
unpublished primary documents, eyewitness accounts, and other written sources.

Examples of sources include:

PRIMARY Sources
• Written materials: books, stories, and myths written at the time; witness reports;
journals and letters; government documents; newspaper reports; cookbooks;
literature and biographies of the time; written words from songs, plays, and poems of
the time
• Images: art, including paintings, sketches, calligraphy, sculptures, decorative
designs; maps; photographs
• Objects or artifacts: burial sites, clothing, pottery and baskets, crafts, tools,
weapons, buildings and furniture, instruments, items constructed by people living at
that time. Artifacts are the physical evidence of the past: archeologists who study
them call them the “material culture” of past societies.
• Recordings (for modern societies): films, video footage, sound recordings on tape,
records, and CDs produced at that time
• Other: oral stories, songs, music, and dance, passed on through generations and
performed by people who were present at the time

SECONDARY sources
• on the other hand, are materials made by people long after the event had taken
place, mainly to provide valuable interpretations of historical event.
• These sources are defined by Gottschalk as “the testimony of anyone who is not an
eyewitness – that is one of who was not present at the event of which he tells”.
• These are books, articles, and scholarly journals that had interpreted primary
sources or had used them to discuss certain subjects of history.

Examples of secondary sources include:

• History textbooks, stories, or accounts of the past written by someone who was not
there, encyclopedias, historical articles, and interpretations

• Pieces of art, literature, music, or dance created later to represent life in that time
period

• Recordings or recreations of past events; artifact reproductions based on theories

about the past, etc.

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HOW DO PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES COMPARE?

Primary sources often give a more genuine picture of life from another time
period. However, primary sources (like secondary sources) may have a biased view of
past events.

Written primary sources often include opinions, attitudes, and values that
reflect the biases and world views of a particular group living in a particular time.
Neither primary sources nor secondary sources are necessarily bias-free or error-free.
Be sure to think critically about any source you consult during your historical
research. Keep these questions in mind as you do your inquiry:

• Why was this item created?

• What was its original purpose?
• What does it tell us about life at that time?

PRIMARY SOURCES SECONDARY SOURCES

• created at the time of an • created after event;
event, or very soon after sometimes a long time after
• created by someone who saw something happened
or heard an event themselves • often uses primary sources as
• often one-of-a-kind, or rare examples
• letters, diaries, photos and • expresses an opinion or an
about a past event argument
newspapers (can all be • history text books, historical
primary sources) movies and biographies (can
all be secondary sources)

THINK!

1. What are the main distinctions between primary and

secondary source?

2. Do you agree that all primary sources justify history? Discuss

your points of argument by connecting it to your everyday
life.

3. Read the excerpts about the TABON MAN then do a

comparative analysis on the different accounts presented.

(for recitation)

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Lesson 3

 EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL

CRITICISM
“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that
doesn’t know it is part of a tree.”- Michael Crichton
“He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get
to his destination”-Jose Rizal

Many documents have primary and secondary segments. For instance,

examining a newspaper as a historical source entails a discerning mind to identify its
primary and secondary components. A news item written by a witness of an event is
considered as a primary source, while a feature article is usually considered as a
secondary material. Similarly, a book published a long time ago does not necessarily
render it as a primary source. It requires reading of the document to know its origin.

To ascertain the authenticity and reliability of primary sources to be used in

crafting a narrative, a historian needs to employ two levels of historical criticism,
namely external criticism and internal criticism.

HISTORICAL CRITICISM examines the origins of earlier text to appreciate the

underlying circumstances upon which the text came to be. It has two important aim.
Firstly, is to discover the original meaning of text ad its primitive historical context
and its literal sense. And secondly is to establish a reconstruction of the historical
situation of the author and recipients of the text.

TWO TYPES OF CRITICISM

EXTERNAL CRITICISM determines the authenticity of the source, which can be

tested in two ways; by paleographical (deciphering and dating historical manuscript)
and diplomatic criticism (critical analysis of historical document to understand how
the document came to be, the information transmitted, and the relationship between
the facts purported in the document).

In external criticism, material must be investigated based on the time and

place it is written. It must determine whether the material is raw or unaltered and
that it exists exactly as the author left it. It answers concerns and questions pertinent
to the authenticity of a historical source by identifying who composed the historical
material, when and where the historical material was produced, and establishing the
material’s evidential value
1. Does the language and writing style conform to the period in question and is
it typical of other work done by the author?

2. Is there evidence that the author exhibits ignorance of things or events that
man of his training and time should have known?

3. Did he report about things, events, or places that could not have been
known during that period?

4. Has the original manuscript been altered either intentionally or

unintentionally by copying?

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5. Is the document an original draft or a copy? If it is a copy, was it reproduced

in the exact words of the original?

6. If manuscript is undated or the author unknown, are there any clues

internally as to its origin? (Key, 1997)

Gilbert J Garraghan (1946) provides the following questions:

1. When was the source, written or unwritten, produced (date)?

2. Where was it produced (localization)?
3. By whom was it produced (authorship)?
4. From what pre-existing material was it produced (analysis)?
5. In what original form was it produced (integrity)?

INTERNAL CRITICISM determines the historicity of facts contained in the

document. It not necessarily to prove the authenticity of the material, however, the
facts contained in the document must be tested before any conclusion can be
admitted. It deals with the credibility and reliability of the content of a given
historical source. Internal criticism focuses on understanding the substances and
message that the historical material wants to convey by examining how the author
frame the intent and the meaning of a composed material. In determining the value
of the facts, the following must be investigated:

1. Consistency of Data/ Character of the source

2. Knowledge and competence of the author
3. Influences prevalent at the time of writing (Time Delay)
4. Bias and Motives of the Author

1. Discuss the importance of historical criticism.

THINK! 2. Do you believe that writing history is subjective and has

biases? Why or why not? Explain your answer.

3. Review the journal of Antonio Pigafetta and make an analysis

using internal and external criticism.

4. Analyze the above journal and identify the bias/es in the

entry, and explain why the author has this bias.

(Get ready!!!these are for your seatwork on your next face to

face class)

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 SUMMARY

History came from the Greek terminology “historia” which means learning by
inquiry. It deals with the study of past events, the beliefs and desires, practices, and
institutions of human beings. Historians are individuals who write about history. They
seek to understand arduous historical research to come up with meaningful and
organized rebuilding of the past.

In studying and writing history, historical sources are much of importance.

Historical data are sourced from artifacts that were left by the past. There are two
general kinds of historical sources; direct or PRIMARY and indirect or SECONDARY.

To ascertain the authenticity and reliability of primary sources to be used in

crafting a narrative, a historian needs to employ two levels of historical criticism,
namely external criticism and internal criticism.

GE 102 Readings in Philippine History