GEd 105

Readings in Philippine History

Batangas State University

Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Analyze the context, content and perspective of different kinds of sources.

Main Topic I: Introduction to History

Objectives

1. Understand the meaning of history as an academic discipline and to be familiar with the
underlying philosophy and methodology of the discipline.
2. Know the difference between primary and secondary sources
3. Examine and assess critically the value of historical evidences and sources
4. Appreciate research method in history

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

Lesson Proper

Lesson 1
History: Introduction and Historical Sources

A. Definition
History refers to the study and interpretation by a historian on the data and other source
of the past human activity, people, societies and civilizations leading to the present day. There
are three important concepts in the definition. First history as we all know is based on past
events. Second it is interpreted by someone usually by historian. They gather, discard and interpret
the sources that they encounter. And finally and the most important history rely on data and
documents which historian call as historical sources.

B. History’s Subject Matter

Like other social science the subject matter of history is the life of people and humanity.
But history has always been known as the study of the past. While this definition of history is not
wrong, it is incomplete. Etymologically, the word history came from the Greek word Historia
which means inquiry. Clearly the word Historia does not mean past events. It denotes asking
question or investigation of the past done by person trained to do so or by persons who are
interested in human past. We can say that historical account must be based on all available relevant
evidence. Therefore a version of the past that cannot be supported by the evidence is worthless.
Ever heard the taong-ahas story? The half human, half snake creature that supposedly
stalked the ladies room of one of the department store in Manila. The most famous victim of this
creature was supposedly the actress Alice Dixson. It happened three decades ago when Alice
Dixson was only 21 years old. Because it happened in the past, would that story qualify as history?
Or would that story classify as gossip or urban legend?
C. History and the Historian
Historian is an expert or student of history, especially that of a particular period,
geographical region or social phenomenon. There are many duties of a historian. These historians
seek not only historical evidence and facts but also to interpret these facts. He also gives meaning
to these facts and organizes them chronologically. A person who must be able to recognize the
evidence, decide how useful it is and come to conclusion based on what he has found out. The
historian therefore is responsible for reconstructing the past. According to Gottschalk, historian is
many times removed from the events under investigation. He added that only a part of what was
observed in the past was remembered by those who observed it, only a part of what was
remembered was recorded; only a part of what was recorded has survived, only a part of what was
survive has come to the historian attention Moreover only a part of what is credible has been
grasped, and only a part of what has been grasped can expounded or narratedby the historian.

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

Some authors define history as a study of historical perspective. In reconstructing the

past, a historian can be subjective; after all he is human, fallible and capable error. People’s
memories are filled with bias, self righteousness, pride, vanity, spinning, obstruction and outright
lies. Each has his own frame of reference or a set of interlocking values, loyalties assumptions
interest and principle of action. The historian is influenced by his own environment, ideology,
education and influence. His interpretation of the historical fact is affected by his context and
circumstances. It’s like the Indian parable of an elephant and the blind men, historians have
different historical perspective.

Because certain events happened so long ago and because sometimes the evidence is
incomplete, historians have different approaches and views about what happened in the past.
This is the subjective nature of history, one historian claims an event happened a certain way, while
another disagree completely. The best approach is to do all we can to reconstruct as fullyas
possible our picture of the past. To do this, most scholars use historiography or what they call
history of history. Historiography is the study of how history was written, by whom and why it
was recorded as such. It is concerned with how historians have presented history. Interpretation
about the past can be objective or true as long as they are free of inherent contradictions, are not
contrary to the laws of nature and are based on actual remains from the time period referred to.
There should also a scientific discourse among historians on a particular controversial event. If
an idea that say Jose Rizal retracted on being a mason stand up to the critique of historian who
are the skeptical of his retraction then the idea must be true. One big advantage of historiography
is that the liars of history are usually quite transparent.
Another way for a historian to be objective is to follow the historical method. It is the
core protocols historians’ use for handling sources. An agreed ground rules for researching and
writing academic research or professional history. An objective historian must verify sources, to
date them, locate the place of origin and identify their intended functions. It is important for a
historian to base their accounts on source materials.

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

D. Sources of History
Historical sources are tangible remains of the past. It is an object from the past or testimony
concerning the past on which historians depend in order to create their own depiction of the past.
There are three kinds of sources namely: primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.
Primary sources
A primary source is a testimony of an individual who was a participant in or a direct witness
to the event that is being described. It is a document or physical object which was writtenor created
during the time under a study. Those sources were present during an experience ortime period
and offer an inside view of a particular event. Primary sources are characterized by their content,
regardless of whether they are available in original format, in microfilm, in digital format or in
published format.
There are five main categories of primary sources. It includes written sources, numerical
records, oral statements, relics, and images. The most common are written sources or documents.
They are written or printed materials that have been produced in one form or another sometime
in the past. They may be published materials such as travelogue, transcription of speech,
autobiographies, journals or newspapers (La Solidaridad). They can be also in manuscript form
or any handwritten or type record that has not been printed. Example of these is archival
materials, memoirs, diary, personal letter or correspondence. The next category is the numerical
records which include any type of numerical data in printed or handwritten form. The third
category is oral statements which include any form of statement made orally by an eyewitness. It
maybe through video recordings, audio recordings, or transcribed. Another category is the relics
or any objects whose physical or visual characteristics can provide some information about the
past. These include artifacts, ruins and fossils. The last category of primary sources is the
images. It includes photograph, posters, paintings, drawing cartoons and maps.
Primary sources: Written sources

Travelogue

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

Newspaper

Archival material

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

Memoir

Primary source: Numerical Records

Printed numerical graph

Primary source: Oral statements

“My first day was a scary one. There was a patient whose earlobes were so long…he had no
nose, only two holes on his face, and no fingers, only the palm of his hands…the other
patients were in different stages of deformity.”
Sr. Maria Luisa Montenegro, SPC 1940
Oral statement of an eyewitness to the Culion Leper Colony

A person interviewing an eyewitness

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

Primary source: Relics

Artifacts (Balanginga Bells)

Ruins

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

Fossil (Callao man)

Primary sources: Images

Photograph (Bud Dajo Massacre)

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

Painting

Cartoon

Map (Murillo Velarde map c.1734)

Secondary Sources
A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more
steps removed from the event. It is prepared by an individual who was not direct witness to an
event, but not who obtained his or her description of the event from someone else. Secondary
sources may have pictures, votes or graphics of primary sources in them. Some types of secondary
sources are history textbook, printed materials (serials or periodicals which interpret previews
research), biographies, nonfiction text such as newspaper, magazine, journals, works of criticism
and interpretation.
Tertiary Source
The last kind of sources is the tertiary source. It provides third hand information by
reporting ideas and details from secondary source. An eyewitness is more reliable than testimony

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

at second hand, which is more reliable than hearsay or tertiary sources. This does not mean that
tertiary sources have no value, merely that they include potential for an additional layer of bias.
Some examples of this kind of source are encyclopedia, almanac, Wikipedia, YouTube,
dictionaries, message boards, social media sites and other search sites.

Learning Tasks

Watch the YouTube channel: I-Witness: ‘Savage: Juan Luna in Paris,’ a documentary by Howie
Severino and answer the following questions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54R1nWALZFw&t=601s
.1. What are the primary sources you encountered in the documentary? Secondary sources?
Tertiary sources?
2. Why did Constancio Ongpin and Mara Pardo de Tavera had different interpretation about the
same event? Based on the sources they presented who is more convincing among the two?
Why?
3. Did Howie Severino presented the documentary objectively? Explain your answer.
References
A. Textbook
Candelaria Jhon Lee P. and Veronica C. Alphorha. Readings in Philippine history -
Rex Book Store 2018
Solmerano, Ernesto Thaddeus et. al. Readings in Philippine History. Fast Books
Educational Supply Inc. 2018
Torres, Jose Victor, Batis; Sources in Philippine History. C&E Publishing, Inc. 2018

B. Other References
Gottschalk, Louis. A Primer of Historical Method. Alfred A. Knopf 1950
Howell, Martha and Walter Prevenier. From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to
Historical Method. Cornell University Press 2001
Navarro, Atoy M. Ang Bagong Kasaysayan sa Wikang Filipino. Palimbagan ng Lahi.
2000
Orillos-Juan, Florina. Historical Method. Commission on Higher Education. Aug. 12,
2016. De La Salle University -Manila
Severino, Howie (Feb.27, 2016) Savage: Juan Luna in Paris. I-Witness, GMA 7 retrieved
Aug.10, 2020 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54R1nWALZFw&t=706s
Scott, William Henry. Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History.
New Day Publication 1984

Module|Technical Working Committee | 2020

 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

Lesson 2
Historical Criticisms
Objectives

1. Provide ideas that guide the discipline of history

2. Develop critical and analytical skills with exposure to primary sources
3. Evaluate primary sources for their credibility, authenticity and provenance
4. Opportunities to improve critical thinking

Lesson Proper

A. Definition
It is also known as the historical-critical method, Historical criticism is a branch of criticism
that investigates the origin of text or source in order to understand the word behind the text. The
primary goal of historical criticism is to discover the text primitive or original historical context
and its literal sense. The secondary goal seeks establish a reconstruction of historical situation of
the author and recipients of the text. Moreover, in order for source to be used as evidence in history,
basic matters about its form and context must be settled. These are two typesof historical criticism
namely: external criticism (investigates the documents form) and internal criticism (investigates
the content of the documents).
B. Additional Goal of Historical Criticism
Historical criticism seeks greater understanding of the texts by analyzing the historical
and social contexts in which they developed. The goal of historical criticism, traditionally, has
been to try to understand the text’s meaning in its original context and to answer questions about
the text, such as: Who wrote it? When was it written? What else what happening at the time of
its writing? How did it come to be in the form we have it today? What did it mean to the people
who first read or heard it?
Historical criticism has also often sought answers to the ever-elusive question of what is
called “authorial intent”: What did the author intend for this text to mean in his or her time and
place? (http://queergrace.com/historical-criticism/)
C. External Criticism
This type of criticism looks for the obvious sign of forgery or misrepresentation. This
type of criticism tests the authenticity of the sources. It is interested in the writing styles of the
eyewitness and his ignorance of the facts. The historian also analyzes the original manuscript; its
integrity, localization and the date it was written. To ascertain if a particular data is fabricated,
forge, fake, corrupted or a hoax, that source must undergo the test of authenticity. Since external
criticism is concern with the explicit sign of misrepresentation, it is the first test the historian
employ to ascertain sources validity.
D. Test of authenticity

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

The first step to test a source is to determine the date of document to see whether it is
anachronistic. Anachronism means out of time or order, something that could not have been
there at that particular time. It could be a person, thing or idea placed in a wrong time. Being able
to spot anachronism is important because it helps us test the reliability of a source. If a source is
unreliable then we probably should not use it .Example can be found in Rizal’s allegedly first poem
“ Sa Aking Mga Kabata” where we could find the word “kalayaan”. Rizal admitted that he first
encountered the word though a Marcelo H. Del Pilar’s translation of Rizal’s essay “ El Amor
Patrio”. Rizal wrote this essay in 1882 while the poem supposedly was written by him in the
year 1869.
The second step is to determine the author’s handwriting, signature or seal. We can
compare the handwriting of particular author to his other writings. Obvious sign of forgery in
include patch writing, hesitation as revealed by ink blobs, pauses in the writing, tremor causing
poor line quality and erasures. However, some people are highly skilled in imitating others
handwriting. Even a skilled forger can be caught because the act of writing is a skill is learned
through repetition until it becomes a habit. Thus, there is natural variation in everyone handwriting.
In addition, no one can duplicate all of the intricate subconscious writing habits of another in an
extended writing sample. Example of this is the handwriting in the alleged retraction letter of Jose
Rizal.
The third test in determining the authenticity of the source is by looking for the
anachronistic style. In this test we will examine idiomatic expression or the orthography used in
the documents. An idiom is an expression, word or phrase that has a figurative meaning
conventionally understood by native speakers. When we say ‘break a leg’ we all know that it means
good luck. Orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language. It includes normsof
spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis and punctuation. When the poem Sa
Aking Mga Kabata was allegedly written in 1869, most Philippine language was widely written in
a variety of ways based on Spanish Orthography:

Early Tagalog System (taken from Doctrina Christiana,)

Ama namin, nasa Lan͠ gitca,
Ypasamba Mo ang N͠ galanmo.
Mouisaamin ang pagcaharimo.
Ypasonor mo ang loob mo
Dito sa lupa para sa Lan͠ git.

Modern Filipino orthography

Ama namin, sumasalangit Ka,
Sambahín ang Ngalan Mo.
Mapasaamin ang kaharián Mo.
Sundín ang loób Mo
Dito sa lupà, para nang sa langit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_orthography

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

The fourth test is the anachronistic reference to events. For example if the event cited in
the document is prior to the actual event, then the document must be forge or fake.
The fifth test of authenticity is the provenance or custody of the document. Provenance is
the place of origin of earliest known history of documents. It traces the roots of any source.
The other two test of authenticity is the semantics and hermeneutics. Semantics is the
linguistic study of meaning. In this test semantics determine the meaning of the text and words of
the source. We may ask: is the meaning of the statements different from its literal meaning?
Hermeneutics on the other hand is theory and methodology of interpretation. Hermeneutics is more
than interpretation or method used when immediate comprehension fails. In historical criticism we
determine ambiguities which are a word or expression that can be understood in two or more
possible ways. Historians may look also if the statement is meant to be ironic (i.e. mean other than
what it says).
E. Internal Criticism
This type of criticism looks for deeper or more intense study of sources. Usually historians
first apply external criticism before undergoing the test of credibility because ofinternal criticisms
implicit character. It is important that the document must be verisimilar or as close as what really
happened from a critical examination of best available resources. It refers to the accuracy of the
content of a document. Internal criticism has to do with what the document says. It investigates
the content or substance of a document and the author’s point of view. This type of criticism tests
the credibility of the source.
F. Test of Credibility
The first step is the identification of the author. It determines if the witness is reliable or
if he is consistent by comparing his other works. In this steps historian also examine the mental
processes of the witness, if he is capable of telling the truth, or if he is mentally challenge.
Finally we will look for his personal attitudes, if he is telling something beyond what he saw or
bragging about it. Many historian use some kind of rubric to test the credibility of the author.
The second step in testing the credibility of the eyewitness is to determine the approximate
date. Example of this is again Rizal’s poem “Sa aking mga kabata”. He wrote that poem when he
is only eight years old and that poem is with rhythm and meter. To think thatwhen Rizal was
8 years old the primary education in the Philippines was nonexistent.
The third step in testing the credibility of the source is its ability to tell the truth.Historians
examine how near an eyewitness is to the event. The closer a source is to the event which it
purports to describe, the more one can trust it to give an accurate historical descriptionof what
actually happened Historian also look for the competence of the eyewitness. Basically they look
for the background of the author like education, health, age or social status. The lasttest for this
step is the degree of the attention of the eyewitness. Whether the sources witness the event only
partly or if he witnesses the event from the start to finish.

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 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

The fourth step is the willingness to tell the truth. If the eyewitness is coerced, forced or
somebody threaten him to tell something then his account is not valid. If the eyewitness wants to
hide something for personal reason
The last step is to look for corroboration. This particular step rest upon the independent
testimony of two or more reliable sources. The words independent testimony must be emphasize.
For instance, if the soldier who fought the battle, a general who oversaw the battle and a doctor
who treated those wounded who fought the battle, all recorded the same fact or all agree about an
event, historians consider that event proven.

Learning Tasks
Watch the YouTube: History with Lourd: Greatest Hoaxes in Philippine History
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1lShfwt930&t=1064s) and answer the following question.
1. Why did Jose Marco became the most successful Conman in the study of Philippine History?
2.What are the hoaxes during Marcos administration? What kind of historical criticism did
historian use to uncover those hoaxes?
3. What lesson did this documentary impart specially in relation with the spread of fake news?
References
A. Textbooks
Candelaria Jhon Lee P. and Veronica C. Alphorha. Readings in Philippine history - Rex
Book Store 2018
Solmerano, Ernesto Thaddeus et. al. Readings in Philippine History. Fast Books
Educational Supply Inc. 2018
Torres, Jose Victor, Batis; Sources in Philippine History. C&E Publishing, Inc. 2018

B. Other References
Rizal’s Poems. National Historical Institute. 2002
Selected Writing of Rizal. Technology Supply Inc. 1999
Bull, Sylvia and Joseph Schattauer Paillé (July 6, 2015) What is Historical Criticism?
Queer Grace Retrieved. August 5, 2020 from http://queergrace.com/historical-criticism/
De Veyra, Lourd (2017) Greatest Hoaxes in Philippine History. History with Lourd.
News 5 Everywhere. Retrieved Aug. 16, 2020 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1lShfwt930
Gottschalk, Louis. A Primer of Historical Method. Alfred A. Knopf 1950
Howell, Martha and Walter Prevenier. From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to
Historical Method. Cornell University Press 2001
Navarro, Atoy M. Ang Bagong Kasaysayan sa Wikang Filipino. Palimbagan ng Lahi.
2000
Orillos-Juan, Florina. Historical Method. Commission on Higher Education. Aug. 12,
2016. De La Salle University -Manila

Module|Technical Working Committee | 2020

 GEd 105
Readings in Philippine History
Batangas State University

Scott, William Henry. Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History.
New Day Publication 1984

Module|Technical Working Committee | 2020