GE- 2 Readings in Philippine History | Module 2 |

Historical Sources | Historical Method

Reminder: Please be reminded that the distribution of modules in this subject is
through the CAS office, made to be available for copying only maybe by a
xerographic copier. This shall be for distribution only on the first (1 st) and third
(3rd) Wednesday of the month during the entire period of the semester.
(For BSIS, BLIS, BSTM, AND BSHS exclusive use)

I. Warm-up:
For 2-5 minutes ponder on these questions. Identify whether the
statement is a PRIMARY or SECONDARY source. Write your answer
before each number.

_______________1. At school you use textbooks to learn about the

history of the Philippines. When you use textbooks, what are you using?
_______________2. You found a letter to one of your classmates in the
room after school yesterday. What is the letter?
_______________3. You and your brother found an old wedding dress in
your archives. Your mother told you that it belonged to your grandmother.
What is the dress?

II. Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. Be familiar with the underlying philosophy and methodology of the
discipline.
2. To examine and assess critically the value of historical evidences and
sources.
3. To appreciate the importance of history in the social and national life of
the Philippines

III. Introduction:
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.
IV. Input
Historical Sources

• Two Classification:
o Primary Sources
 Primary sources are usually defined as first-hand
information or data that is generated by witnesses or
participants in past events.
 Those sources produced at same time as the event,
period, or subject being studied. These materials are
often located in the Special Collections of a library,
rather than in the general collection.
 These are contemporary accounts of an event,
written by someone who experienced or witnessed
the event in question.
 Are characterized not by their format but rather by
the information they convey and their relationship to
the research question. They include letters, diaries,
journals, newspapers, photographs, and other
immediate accounts. The interpretation and
evaluation of these sources becomes the basis for
research.
 These original documents (i.e., they are not about
another document or account) are often diaries,
letters, memoirs, journals, speeches, manuscripts,
interviews and other such unpublished works.
 They may also include published pieces such as
newspaper or magazine articles (as long as they are
written soon after the fact and not as historical
accounts), photographs, audio or video recordings,
research reports in the natural or social sciences, or
original literary or theatrical works.

Figure1. Alibata

Figure2. Philippine Artifact

 Figure3. Philippine Event

o Secondary Sources
 Are those sources produced by an author who
used primary sources to produce the material
 The function of these is to interpret primary
sources, and so can be described as at least one
step removed from the event or phenomenon under
review.
 Secondary source materials, then, interpret,
assign value to, conjecture upon, and draw
conclusions about the events reported in primary
sources.
 These are usually in the form of published
works such as journal articles or books, but may
include radio or television documentaries, or
conference proceedings.

Figure 4. The Revolt of the Masses by Teodoro Agoncillo

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.

Historical Method

Being able to identify primary sources from secondary sources is the first step of
historical method. Historical method refers to the process of probing primary
sources that will be used in writing history. This includes source criticism which
studies the external and internal validity of sources.

o External Criticism
 the practice of verifying the authenticity of
evidence by examining the physical characteristics
  consistency with the historical characteristic of
the time when it was produced, and the materials
used for the evidence
 sometimes called as “lower criticism”
 the genuineness of the document
 form and appearance and more particularly to
question of authorship and textual circumstances
such as time, place and purpose.
 External criticism applies "science to a
document." It involves such physical and technical
tests as dating of paper a document is written on, but
it also involves a knowledge of when certain things
existed or were possible, e.g. when zip codes were
invented.

o Internal Criticism
 Is the examination of the truthfulness and
factuality of the evidence.
 It looks at the content of the source and
examines the circumstance of its production.
 It could be done by looking at the author, its
context, agenda, the purpose behind its creation
 Sometimes called as “higher criticism”
 The meaning and trustworthiness of the
contents of the documents
 Value and worth of its contents, its literal
meaning and the reliability of the statements
themselves.
 May be carried on positively or negatively, the
first being the approach of discovering the real
meaning of the text and the second that approach
with a view to find reasons for disbelieving what the
document says thus putting to question the author’s
good faith, motive, competence, accuracy and even
his knowledge on the subject covered.
V. Readings
Agoncillo, Teodoro. (2012). History of the Filipino People 8th edition. Quezon
City. C&E Publishing. Inc de la Costa, H. (1992). Readings in Philippine
History. Makati City: J.G.V.Offset Press.
OpenLearn from the Open University. (2016, December 14). How do historians
know about the past? (1/3). Retrieved August 20, 2020, from Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMdCUQF5o5w
Oxillo, M. (2018, October 11). Readings in Philippine History - Introduction to
Philippine History. Retrieved August 20, 2020, from Slideshare:
https://www.slideshare.net/markjhonoxillo/introduction-to-philippine-
history119056759
Samsonas, J. (2016, April 30). How Historians Do History. Retrieved August 20,
2020, from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSrI7pVo4lo

____FREDDIE R. COLLADA____
Instructor 1