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READING IN THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY
INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY:
DEFINITIONS, ISSUES,
SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER 1
• Learning Objectives:
• To understand the meaning of history as an academic
discipline and to be familiar with the underlying
philosophy and methodology of the discipline.
• To apply the knowledge in historical methodology in
philosophy in assessing and analyzing existing historical
narratives.
• Learning Objectives:
• To examine and assess critically the value of historical
evidences and sources.
• To appreciate the importance of history in the social
and national life of the Philippines.
• This chapter introduces history as a discipline and as a
narrative.
• This chapter also discusses several issues in history that
consequently opens up for the theoretical aspects of
the discipline.
• Ultimately, this chapter also tackles the task of the
historian as the arbiter of the facts and evidences in
making his interpretation and forming historical
narrative.
Definition and Subject Matter
• History has always been known as the study of the past.
• History was derived from the Greek word historia which
means “knowledge acquired through inquiry and
investigation.
• Historia as a discipline existed for around 2,400 years and is
as old as mathematics and philosophy.
• Definition and Subject Matter
• But as any other academic disciplines, history progressed and
opened up to the possibility of valid historical sources, which
were not limited to written documents, like government
records, chroniclers’ accounts, or personal letters.
• History thus became more inclusive and started collaborating
with other disciplines as its auxiliary disciplines.
• QUESTIONS AND ISSUES IN HISTORY
• Indeed, history as a discipline has already turned into a
complex and dynamic inquiry.
• In simple terms, historiography is the history of history.
• History and historiography should not be confused with
each other:
• QUESTIONS AND ISSUES IN HISTORY
1. History’s object of study is the past, the events that happened in the past,
and the causes of such events.
2. Historiography’s object of the 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?)
• QUESTIONS AND ISSUES IN HISTORY
• History has played various roles in the past.
• Lessons from the past can be used to make sense of the present.
• As a narrative, any history that has been taught and written is always
intended for a certain group of audience.
• One of the problem confronted by history is the accusation that the
history is 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 player.
• TWO PHILOSOPHICAL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
1. 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.
2. Postcolonialism- 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 shadow of their
colonial past.
• HISTORY AND THE HISTORIAN
• If history is written with the 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 worthwhile to study
history?
• These questions have haunted historian for many generations.
• Therefore it is the historian’s job not just to seek historical evidences
and facts but also to interpret these facts. “Facts cannot speaks for
themselves.”
• HISTORY AND THE HISTORIAN
• The historian is the person of his own who influenced by his own
context, environment, ideology, education, and influences, among
others.
• Historical research requires rigor.
• Historical methodology comprises certain techniques and rules that
historian follow in order to properly utilize sources and historical
evidences in writing history.
• 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 claim of his
informant through comparing and corroborating it with written
sources.
• HISTORY AND THE HISTORIAN
• The Annales School of History is a school of history born in
France that challenged the canons of history.
• Annales scholars like Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch, Ferdinand
Braudel, and Jacques Le Goff studied other subjects in a
historical manner.
• 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.
• Primary sources are those sources produce at the same time, as the
event, period, or subject being studied.
• 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.
• HISTORICAL SOURCES
• However, a student should not be confused about what counts as a
primary or secondary source.
• Both primary and secondary sources are useful in writing and learning
history.
• The historian should be able to conduct an external and internal criticism
of the source, especially primary source which can aged 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 material used
for the evidence.
• Internal criticism, on the other hand, is the examination of the
truthfulness of evidence.
• HISTORICAL SOURCES
• 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.
• One of the most scandalous cases of deception in Philippine history is the
hoax Code of Kalantiaw.
• Ferdinand Marcos also claimed that he was a decorated world war II
soldier who led a guerilla unit called Ang Maharlika. This claim, however,
was disproven when historians counterchecked Marco’s claims with the
war records of the United States.
• HISTORICAL SOURCES
• 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.
• Philippine historiography underwent several changes since the
precolonial period until the present. Ancient Filipinos narrated their
history through communal songs and epics that they passed orally
from a generation to another.
