Understanding History: A

Primer of Historical Method

By Louis Gottschalk

CHRISTOFER D. STA. ANA

SLSU Lucena Campus
What is history? - is the interpretative
and imaginative
study of surviving
records of the past,
either written or
unwritten, in order to
determine the
meaning and scope of
human existence.

Greek word -
inquiry/knowledge
“historia”
Why do we need to study Philippine
History again?

in basic
historical facts
elementary (what, who where and
when)

in high historical
details
school (how)

in historical
college analysis
(why)
What are the uses of history?

Bridging the gap between the present

and the past

• historical facts and

Explaining causes of things and Recall details
events
• importance and
Realize values learned

Projecting the future

• good parts
Repeat of history

Promoting nationalism and

patriotism
History
Greek origin historie
(ιστορια) = learning

German– Geshchichte, which is

derived from geschehen,
meaning to happen
History
• A narrative of what happened that has been
systematically accounted for or a systematic
account of past events.

• The study of the past, encompassing every

dimension of human experience – social life, the
economy, culture, thought, and politics (CMO
16. S., 2010)
Kasaysayan
• Rooted in two words salaysay, which means
a narrative or a story and, more important,
saysay or meaning.

• A narrative (which can be written, visual, or

oral or combination of all three) about past
events that has meaning to a certain group of
people in a given time and place. (Ocampo,
2013, p.xii)
Kasaysayan
• Isang salaysay na may saysay sa mga taong
nagsasalaysay o isang salaysay hinggil sa
nakaraan na may saysay para sa
sinasalaysayang pangkat ng tao o salinlahi.
(Navarro, 2000, pp. 11-12)
• Salazar’s contribution to the definition of
history is couched on his theoretical
framework of Pantayong Pananaw (PP).
Salitang
ugat na
SAYSAY
Objectivity vs. Subjectivity
in History
To be studied objectively (that is, with the intention
of acquiring detached and truthful knowledge
independent of one’s personal reactions), a thing
must first be an object, it must have an independent
existence outside the human mind. Recollections,
however, do not have existence outside the human
mind; and most of history is based upon
recollections – that is, written or spoken testimony.
 Artifacts
Only where relics of human happenings can be
found – a potsherd, a coin, a ruin, a manuscript,
a book, a portrait, a stamp, a piece of wreckage, a
strand of hair, or other archeological or
anthropological remains

Whether artifacts or documents, they are raw

materials out of which history may be written.
 But there is a catch

A historical context can be given to

.

them only if they can be placed in a

human setting.
Here is the catch again

•Event
•Observed
•Grasped •Remembered
Narrated . •Credible •Recorded
•Survived
•Historian’s attention
.The whole history of the past (what has
been called history-as-actuality) can be
known to him only through the surviving
record of it (history-as-record), and most
of history-as-record is only the surviving
part of the recorded part of the
remembered part of the observed part of
that whole.
Historical Method and Historiography
Historical method

The process of critically examining and analyzing

the records and survivals of the past is here called
historical method.
Historiography
The imaginative reconstruction of the past from
the data derived by that process is called
historiography (the writing of history).
 Historical Analysis
(1) the selection of a subject for
investigation;
(2) the collection of probable sources of
information on the subject;
(3) the examination of those sources for
genuineness (either in whole or in part); and

(4) the extraction of credible particulars from

the sources (or parts of sources) proved
genuine
SOURCES OF
HISTORICAL DATA
Historical Data
• Sourced from artifacts that have been left by the
past.
• Relics or remains.
• Testimonies of witnesses
• Materials from which the historians construct
meaning.
• Provides evidence about the existence of an
event.
Relics or Remains
• Offer researchers a clue about the past
• Artifacts can be found where relics of
human happenings can be found, e.g.,
a coin, a ruin, a manuscripts, a book, a
portrait, a stamp, a piece of wreckage,
a strand of hair, or other archeological
or anthropological remains.
The Manunggul Jar
- recovered at
Chamber A of Manunggul
Cave in Palawan.
- an elaborately
designed burial jar with
anthropomorphic figures on
top of the cover that
represent souls sailing to the
afterworld in a death boat.
- It is dated to as early
as 710 - 890 B.C. The
Manunggul jar was
declared a National
Cultural Treasure.
Callao Man (67,000 years old)
The latest discovery of what is now considered the oldest human fossil
remains found in the Philippines. Discovered in 2007 at the Callao
Caves in Penablanca, Cagayan Valley.
Photo shows the remains of the foot bone found in the cave excavations.
Calatagan, Batangas
Excavated by Dr. Robert Fox
in 1958, the burial site of
Calatagan yielded 505 burials
and 521 associated ceramics,
porcelains and stoneware jars
from China, Thailand, and
Vietnam, as well as hundreds
of local earthenware and iron
tools.
The Asian tradeware ceramics
of the site date to the early to
mid-Ming Dynasty (14th-15th
centuries AD).
Testimonies of witnesses
• Oral or written
• created to serve as records
• Historians deals with the dynamics (the
becoming)as well as the static (the being) and
aims at being interpretative (explaining why and
how things happened and were interrelated) as
well as descriptive (telling what happened, when
and where, and who took part)
Written sources of History

Narrative
or literary

Categories

Social Diplomatic
documents or judicial
 • Chronicles or tracts
presented in narrative form,
written to impart a message
whose motives for their
Narrative or composition vary widely.
literature • A newspaper article might
be intended to shaped
opinion; to so-called ego
document or personal
narrative such as diary or
memoir.
 • Those which document/record
an existing legal situation or
create a new one, and it is these
kinds of sources that
Diplomatic professional historians treated as
the “best” source.
sources • A legal documents is usually
sealed or authenticated to
provide evidence that a legal
transaction has been completed
and can be used as evidence in a
judicial proceedings in case of
dispute
 • Information pertaining for
economic, social, political, or
judicial significance.
• They are records kept by
Social bureaucracies.
• Example. Government reports,
documents
such as municipal accounts,
research findings, and
documents like civil registry
records, property register, and
records of census.
Non – written Sources of History

Oral
evidence

Material
evidence

Typed of
unwritten
sources
Material evidence “archeological evidence”

• One of the most important unwritten evidences.

• Artistic creations such as pottery, jewelry,

dwellings, graves, churches, roads, and other
that tell a story about the past.

• Provide valuable information to historians.

Oral evidence
• Source of information for historians, told
by the tales or sagas of ancient people

• Folksongs or popular rituals

• Interviews as major form of oral evidence

Primary versus Secondary
Sources
 Primary
or direct

Secondary
or indirect

Sources
What is a Primary Source?

▫ Primary sources are materials

produced by people or groups
directly involved in the event or
topic under consideration.
Think of them as first-hand
information.
What Is a Primary Source
 Examples of primary
sources include eyewitness
accounts, speeches, letters
and diaries, newspapers and
magazines, tax and census
data, marriage, birth and
death records, works of art,
and interviews
What is a Secondary Source
Secondary sources construct an explanation
of the past based on primary sources and
usually in consultation with other
secondary sources.

The best secondary sources will both report

on events in the past as well as generalize,
analyze, interpret and/or evaluate.
Can we Trust the Sources?
First, historians think about where, when and why a document
was created. They consider whether a source was created close
in location and time to an actual historical event.
Historians also think about the purpose of a source. Was it a
personal diary intended to be kept private? Was the document
prepared for the public?
Some primary sources may be judged more reliable than others,
but every source is biased in some way. As a result, historians
read sources skeptically and critically.
Rules how to decide

RULE #1
Time and Place

RULE #2
Bias
Rule #1: Time and Place

This rule says the closer in

time and place a source and
its creator were to an event in
the past, the better the source
will be.
Rule #1: Time and Place
Examples Might Include:
 Direct traces of the event;
 Accounts of the event, created at the time it occurred, by
firsthand observers and participants;
 Accounts of the event, created after the event occurred, by
firsthand observers and participants;
 Accounts of the event, created after the event occurred, by people
who did not participate or witness the event, but who used
interviews or evidence from the time of the event
Rule #2: Bias
This rule says every source is
biased in some way.
Documents tell us only what
the creator of the document
thought happened, or
perhaps only what the creator
wants us to think happened.
Rule #2: Bias
Examples Might Include:

 Every piece of evidence and every source must

be read or viewed skeptically and critically.
 No piece of evidence should be taken at face
value. The creator's point of view must be
considered.
 Each piece of evidence and source must be
cross-checked and compared with related
sources and pieces of evidence.
 Original Source
(1) because it contains fresh and
creative ideas,
(2) the collection of probable sources of
information on the subject;
(3) because it is in its earliest, unpolished
stage,
(4) because its text is the approved text,
unmodified and untampered with, and
(5) because it is the earliest available
source of the information it provides.
 Document

A written source of historical information

as contrasted with oral testimony or with
artifacts, pictorial survivals, and
archeological remains.

A human document has been defined as

“an account of individual experience which
reveals the individual’s actions as a human
agent and as a participant in social life.”
Lesson 3: HISTORICAL
CRITICISMS
Definition
• Examines the origins of earliest text to
appreciate the underlying circumstances
upon which the text came to be (Soulen &
Soulen, 2001)
Goals of historical criticism
1. To discover the original meaning of the text in
its primitive or historical context and its literal
sense or sensus literalis historicus.

2. To establish a reconstruction of the historical

situation of the author and recipients of the
text.
External Internal

Types of
Historical
Criticism
 Historical Criticism

External
authenticity Internal
credibility
 Historical Criticism
External = authenticity
• Fabricated, forged, fake
• Hoax, misrepresentation
 Historical Criticism
External = authenticity
Tests:
• Date
• Author’s handwriting, signature
• Anachronistic style (idiom,
ortography, punctuation...)
• Anachronistic reference to
events (too early, too late, too remote)
• Provenance
•Semantics
 Historical Criticism
Internal = crebility
Tests:
• Verisimilitude
• Author’s mental processes
• Approximate date
• Ability to tell the truth
•Willingness to tell the truth
•Corroboration
 Historical Fact
A historical “fact” thus may be defined as
a particular derived directly or indirectly
from historical documents and regarded
as credible after careful testing in
accordance with the canons of historical
method. An infinity and a multiple variety
of facts of this kind are accepted by all
historians: e.g., that Socrates really
existed; that Alexander invaded India…
 Historical Fact
In the process of analysis the historian
should constantly keep in mind the
relevant particulars within the document
rather than the document as a whole.
Regarding each particular he asks: Is it
credible? It might be well to point out
again that what is meant by calling
particular credible is not that it is actually
what happened, but that is as close to
what actually happened as we can learn
from a critical examination of the best
available sources..
 Historical Fact
In the process of analysis the historian
should constantly keep in mind the
relevant particulars within the document
rather than the document as a whole.
Regarding each particular he asks: Is it
credible? It might be well to point out
again that what is meant by calling
particular credible is not that it is actually
what happened, but that is as close to
what actually happened as we can learn
from a critical examination of the best
available sources..
 Historical Fact
This means verisimilar at a high
level. It connotes something more
than merely not being preposterous
in itself or even than plausible and
yet is short of meaning accurately
descriptive of past actuality. In other
words, the historian establishes
verisimilitude rather than objective
truth. Though there is high
correlation between the two, they
are not necessarily identical.
We are products of the past, creators of the future,
and the ones who live in the present.

Thank you!
• Background of the author
• Immediate history of the document
• Content, rival claims
• Implication to the historical narrative
• Relevance to contemporary times
• Underlying values