DEFINING HISTORY
• History is less than the past.
• According to Teodoro Agoncillo…
“I have always held the belief that history is a
discipline and, as a species of composition, has
the element of the humanities and the social
sciences. The historian’s methodology is
scientific and does not allow the literary artist’s
imagination to interfere with scientific method
of investigating the data used in historical
writing. On the other hand, the processed data
are given life, meaning and significance by the
artistic temperament of the historian and
thereby becomes a branch of the humanistic
studies.”
• According to Reynaldo Ileto …
- introduced “history from below” approach
which moves away from common historical
narratives of Philippine History
• According to Renato Constantino ..
- “History … should serve the purpose of
integrating seemingly isolated facts and events
into a coherent historical process so that a
view of the totality of social reality may be
achieved…”
- forming a history biased towards the struggles
of the people is one that could free the Filipino’s
consciousness from years of colonial
miseducation
THE IMPORTANCE OF
UNDERSTANDING PHILIPPINE HISTORY
✓ helps understand people and societies
✓ inspirations
✓ provides identity
✓ essential for good citizenship
✓ strengthens unity
SOURCES OF WRITING HISTORY
It is from historical sources that our history is
studied and written. But in analyzing them, several
methodologies and theories were used by historians
to properly study history and glean from the sources
what is, for them, a proper way of writing history to
enhance and disseminate national identity.
• Primary Sources
Primary Sources are materials produced by
people or groups directly involved in the event or
topic being studied. These people are either
participants or eyewitnesses to the event.
Formally, there are eight examples of primary
sources:
1. Photographs that may reflect social conditions
of historical realities and everyday life
Fusilamiento de Jose Rizal el 30
de Diciembre, 1896.
Photographic image of the
execution of Jose Rizal taken by
Manuel Arias Rodriguez
2. Old sketches and drawings that may indicate
the conditions of life of societies in the past
The Boxer Codex is a 307-page Spanish
manuscript showing the people and
customs of our ancestors during the
early years of the Spanish Conquest.
Of the 75 drawings, 15 pertain to the
Philippines and are some of the earliest
representations we have of the Tagalog,
Bisaya, Cagayanon and Negrito,
documenting how they dressed and how
they wore gold jewelry at the time of
contact with the Spaniards.
3. Old maps that may reveal how space and
geography were used to emphasize trade
routes, structural build up, etc.
4. Cartoons for political expression or
propaganda
Political Cartoon published in an
American newspaper in 1898 depicting
President William McKinley taking the
savage and debating how to handle the
country (The Philippines)
5. Material evidence of the prehistoric past like
cave drawings, old syllabaries, and ancient
writings
6. Statistical tables, graphs and charts
7. Oral history or recordings by electronic means
of accounts of eyewitnesses or participants
8. Published and unpublished primary
documents, eyewitness accounts, and other
written sources
• Secondary Sources
Secondary Sources are sources of history which
were produced by an author who used primary
sources to produce the material.
According to Louis Reichenthal Gottschalk,
secondary sources are “…the testimony of anyone
who is not an eyewitness – that is of one who was
not present at the event of which he tells”.
Books, articles and journals that had interpreted
primary sources or had used them to discuss
certain subjects of history are examples of
secondary sources.