GE 8 - Handouts for First Exam

History
- is derived from Greek word “historia” which means learning by inquiry.
- a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events.
- the study of or a record of past events considered together, especially events of a
particular period, country, or subject.
- According to Aristotle history as the systematic accounting of a set of natural
phenomena. Which explain that knowledge is derived through conducting a process
of scientific investigation of past events.

Theories of Investigating History

1. Factual History
- Presents readers the plain and basic information vis-à-vis the events that took place
(what), the time and date with which the events happened (when), the place with
which the events took place, and the people that were involved (who).

2. Speculative History
- It goes beyond facts because it is concerned about the reasons for which events
happened (why), and the way they happened (how).
- It tries to speculate on the cause and effect of an event”

Historiography
- Known as the practice of historical writing

Who Investigate History?

1. Archeologist
- a person who studies human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites
and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains

2. Anthropologist
- a person who scientifically studies humans and their customs, beliefs, and
relationships

3. Oral Historian
- a person who study the collection and study of historical information using sound
recordings of interviews with people having personal knowledge of past events.

Versimilitude
- means (the truth, authenticity, plausibility) about a past.
Historical Method
- the process of critically examining and analyzing the records and survivals of the past.

Historiography
- the imaginative reconstruction of the past from the data derived

(both of which are frequently grouped together simply as historical method, the historian
endeavors to reconstruct as mush of the past of mankind as he/she can)

Historical Analysis is also an important element of historical method. In historical analysis,

historians:
1. select the subject to investigate;
2. collect probable sources of information of the subject;
3. examine the sources genuineness, in part of in whole; and
4. extract credible “particulars” from the sources (or part of sources).

Historical Data
- are sourced form artifacts that have been left by the past.
- These artifacts can either be relics or remains, or the testimonies of witnesses to the
past.

Written Sources of History

1. Narrative or literature
- are chronicles or tracts presented in narrative form, written to impart a
message whose motives for their composition vary widely. For example, a
scientific tract is typically composed in order to inform contemporaries or
succeeding generations; …..
2. Diplomatic sources
- are understood to be those which document/record an existing legal situation
or create a new one, and it is these kinds of sources that professional
historians once treated as the purest, the “best” source.
3. Social Documents
- are information pertaining to economic, social, political, or judicial
significance.

Non-Written Sources of History

1. Material Evidence
- also known as archaeological evidence is one of the most important unwritten
evidences. This include artistic creations such as pottery, jewelry, dwelling,
graves, churches, roads, and others that tell a story about the past.
2. Oral evidence
- is also an important source of information for historians. Much are told by the
tales or sagas of ancient people and the folk songs or popular rituals from the
premodern period of Philippine history.

Primary and Secondary Sources of History

1. Primary sources
- are original, first-hand account of an event or period that are usually written
or made during or close to the event or period. These sources are original and
factual, not interpretive.
2. Secondary sources
- are materials made by the people long after the events being described had
taken place to provide valuable interpretations of historical events.