DE LA SALLE JOHN BOSCO COLLEGE

La Salle Drive, Mangagoy, Bislig City 8311

HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

Module Number I
Module Title Definition, Issues, Sources and Methodology
Duration Four (4) Hours
Week Number 1
Date December 12 – 17, 2022

OBJECTIVES:

1. To understand the meaning of history as an academic discipline and to be familiar

with the underlying philosophy and methodology of the discipline.
2. To apply the knowledge in historical methodology and philosophy in assessing and
analyzing existing historical narratives.
3. To examine and assess critically the value of historical evidence and sources.
4. To appreciate the importance of history in the social and national life of the
Philippines.

MODULE DESCRIPTION:

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 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 area also tackles the
task of the historian as the arbiter of facts and evidence in making his interpretation and forming
historical narrative.

A. Definition and Subject Matter

History has always been known as the study of the past. 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
respected 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 a 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. Historia became known as the account of the past of a
person or of a group of people through written documents and historical evidence. That
meaning stuck until the early part 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. 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.

But as any other academic disciplines, history progressed and opened to the
possibility of valid historical sources, which were not limited to written documents, like
government records, chroniclers’ accounts, or personal letters. Giving premium to written
documents essentially invalidates 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

HEIDE R. VILLAMOR, RL
Instructor
 DE LA SALLE JOHN BOSCO COLLEGE
La Salle Drive, Mangagoy, Bislig City 8311
HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

historical record. But what of peasant families or indigenous groups who 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. 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
bygone era to study ancient civilizations that we formerly ignored in history because of lack
of documents. Linguists can also be helpful in tracking 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.

B. Questions and Issues in History

Indeed, history as a discipline has 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. The latter's object of study, on the other hand, is 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?). 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 teaches 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 is the school of thought that emerged between the eighteenth and
nineteenth century. This thought requires empirical and observable 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 primary documents in order to write a particular historical narrative.
Positivist historians are also expected to be objective and impartial not 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 ilustrados, 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." The same is true for
nations which prescribe official versions of their history like North Korea, the Nazi Germany

HEIDE R. VILLAMOR, RL
Instructor
 DE LA SALLE JOHN BOSCO COLLEGE
La Salle Drive, Mangagoy, Bislig City 8311
HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

during the war period, and Thailand. The same was attempted by Marcos in the Philippines
during the 1970s.

Post-colonialism is a 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, and
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 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 players. 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.

C. History and the Historian

If history is written with agenda or is heavily influenced by the historian, is it possible

to come up with an absolute historical truth? Is history an objective discipline? If it is not, is it
still worthwhile to study history? These questions have haunted historians for many
generations. Indeed, an exact and accurate account of the past is impossible for the very
simple reason that we cannot go back to the past. We cannot access the past directly as our
subject matter. Historians only get to access representation of the past through historical
sources and evidence.

Therefore, it is the historian's job not just to seek historical evidence 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 fact is affected by his context and circumstances. His
subjectivity will inevitably influence the process of his historical research: the methodology
that he will use, the facts that he shall select and deem relevant, his interpretation, and even
the form of his writings. Thus, in one way or another, history is always subjective. If that is
so, can history still be considered as an academic and scientific inquiry?

Historical research requires rigor. Even though historians cannot ascertain absolute
objectivity' the study of history remains scientific because of the rigor of research and
methodology that historians employ. Historical methodology comprises certain techniques
and rules that historians follow in order to properly utilize sources and historical evidence 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 writings while may be influenced by the historian's inclinations, can still be
validated by using reliable evidence and employing correct and meticulous historical
methodology.

HEIDE R. VILLAMOR, RL
Instructor
 DE LA SALLE JOHN BOSCO COLLEGE
La Salle Drive, Mangagoy, Bislig City 8311
HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

The Annales School of History is a school of history born in France that challenged
the canons of history. This school of thought did away with the common historical
subjects that were almost always related to the conduct of states and monarchs.
Annales scholars like Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch, Fernand Braudel, and Jacques Le
Goff studied other subjects in a historical manner. They were concerned with social
history and studied longer historical periods. For example, Annales scholars studied
the history of peasantry, the history of medicine, or even the history of environment.
The history from below was pioneered by the same scholars. They advocated that the
people and classes who were not reflected in the history of the society in the grand
manner be provided with space in the records of mankind. In doing this, Annales
thinkers married history with other disciplines like geography, anthropology,
archaeology, and linguistics.

For example, if a historian chooses to use an oral account as his data in studying the
ethnic history of the Ifugaos in the Cordilleras during the American Occupation, he needs to
validate the claims of his informant through comparing and corroborating it with written
sources. Therefore, while bias is inevitable, the historian can balance this out by relying to
evidence that back up his claim. In this sense, the historian need not let his bias blind his
judgment and such bias are only acceptable if he maintains his rigor as a researcher.

D. Historical Sources

With the past as history's subject matter, the historian's most important research
tools are historical sources. In general, historical sources can be classified between primary
and secondary sources. The classification of sources between these two categories
depends on the historical subject being studied. Primary sources are those sources
produced at the same time as the event, period, or subject being studied. For example, if a
historian wishes to study the Commonwealth Constitution Convention of 1935, his primary
sources can include the minutes of the convention, newspaper clippings, Philippine
Commission reports of the U.S. Commissioners, records of the convention, the draft of the
Constitution, and even photographs of the event. Eyewitness accounts of convention
delegates and their memoirs can also be used as primary sources. The same goes with
other subjects of historical study. Archival documents, artifacts, memorabilia, letters, census,
and government records, among others are the most common examples of primary sources.

On the other hand, secondary sources are those sources, which were produced by
an author who used primary sources to produce the material. In other words, secondary
sources are historical sources, which studied a certain historical subject. For example, about
the Philippine Revolution of 1896, students can read Teodoro Agoncillo's Revolt of the
Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan published originally in 1956. The
Philippine Revolution happened in the last years of the nineteenth century while Agoncillo
published his work in 1956, which makes the Revolt of the Masses a secondary source.
More than this, in writing the book, Agoncillo used primary sources with his research like
documents of the Katipunan, interview with the veterans of the Revolution, and
correspondence between and among Katipuneros.

However, a student should not be confused about what counts as a primary or a

secondary source. As mentioned above, the classification of sources between primary and
secondary depends not on the period when the source was produced or the type of the
source but on the subject of the historical research. For example, a textbook is usually
classified as a secondary source, a tertiary source even. However, this classification is usual
but not automatic. If a historian chooses to write the history of education in the 1980s, he
can utilize textbooks used in that period as a primary source. If a historian wishes to study
the historiography of the Filipino American War for example, he can use works of different
authors on the topic as his primary source as well.

Both primary and secondary sources are useful in writing and learning history.
However, historians and students of history need to thoroughly scrutinize these historical
sources to avoid deception and to come up with the historical truth. The historian should be

HEIDE R. VILLAMOR, RL
Instructor
 DE LA SALLE JOHN BOSCO COLLEGE
La Salle Drive, Mangagoy, Bislig City 8311
HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

able to conduct an external and internal criticism of the source, especially primary sources
which can age in centuries. External criticism is the practice of verifying the authenticity of
evidence by examining its physical characteristics; consistency with the historical
characteristic of the time when it was produced; and the materials used for the evidence.
Examples of the things that will be examined when conducting external criticism of a
document include the quality of the paper, the type of the ink, and the language and words
used in the material, among others.

Internal criticism, on the other hand, is the examination of the truthfulness of the
evidence. It looks at the content of the source and examines the circumstance of its
production. Internal criticism 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. For example,
Japanese reports and declarations during the period of the war should not be taken as a
historical fact hastily. Internal criticism entails that the historian acknowledge and analyze
how such reports can be manipulated to be used as war propaganda. Validating historical
sources is important because the use of unverified, falsified, and untruthful historical
sources can lead to equally false conclusions. Without thorough criticisms of historical
evidence, historical deceptions and lies will be highly probable.

One of the most scandalous cases of deception in Philippine history is the hoax
Code of Kalantiaw. The code was a set of rules contained in an epic, Maragtas, which was
allegedly written by a certain Datu Kalantiaw. The document was sold to the National Library
and was regarded as an important pre-colonial document until 1968, when American
historian William Henry Scott debunked the authenticity of the code due to anachronism and
lack of evidence to prove that the code existed in the pre-colonial Philippine society.
Ferdinand Marcos also claimed that he was a decorated World War II soldier who led a
guerilla unit called Ang Maharlika. This was widely believed by students of history and
Marcos had war medals to show. This claim, however, was disproven when historians
counterchecked Marcos's claims with the war records of the United States. These cases
prove how deceptions can propagate without rigorous historical research.

The task of the historian is to look at the available historical sources and select the
most relevant and meaningful for history and for the subject matter that he is studying.
History, like other academic discipline, has come a long way but still has a lot of remaining
tasks to do. It does not claim to render absolute and exact judgment because if questions
are continuously asked, and as long as time unfolds, the study of history can never be
complete. The task of the historian is to organize the past that is being created so that it can
offer lessons for nations, societies, and civilization. It is the historian's job to seek for the
meaning of recovering the past to let the people see the continuing relevance of
provenance, memory, remembering, and historical understanding for both the present and
the future.

Philippine historiography underwent several changes since the pre-colonial period

until the present. 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. The
perspective of historical writing and inquiry also shifted. The Spanish colonizers
narrated the history of their colony in a bipartite view. 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. Early nationalists refuted this perspective
and argued the tripartite view. They saw the pre-colonial 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.
Filipino historian Zeus Salazar introduced the new guiding philosophy for writing and
teaching history: pantayong pananaw (for us-from us perspective). This perspective
highlights the importance of facilitating an internal conversation and discourse among
Filipinos about our own history, using the language that is understood by everyone.

HEIDE R. VILLAMOR, RL
Instructor