Alyssandra Nicole C.

Daliuag
BSA 1

PAGE 42
1. What is an origin? What questions can be asked when evaluating the origin of a primary
source?

 Who created it?
 Who is the author?
 When was it created?
 When was it published?
 Where was it published?
 Who is publishing it?
 Is there anything we know about the author that is pertinent to our evaluation?

2. Why is there a need to know the origin of a primary source?

 To identify the basic background information about the creation of the document.

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of primary and secondary sources?
 Primary source: Advantages: They offer a quick, easy introduction to your
topic. They may point to high-quality primary and
secondary sources. Disadvantages: Because of their distance, they may
oversimplify or otherwise distort a topic. Secondary source:
Advantages: Secondary sources provide a variety of expert perspectives and
insights. Disadvantages: Because secondary sources are not necessarily focused
on your specific topic, you may have to dig to find applicable information.

4. What is a purpose? What questions can be asked when evaluating the purpose of a
primary source?

 Why does this document exist?
 Why did the author create this piece of work? What is the intent?
 Why did the author choose this particular format?
 Who is the intended audience? Who was the author thinking would receive this?
 What does the document say?
 Can it tell you more than is on the surface?

5. Why is there a need to know the purpose of a primary source?

 To explain why this source was created.
 6. What is a limitation? What questions can be asked when evaluating the limitation of a
primary source?
 What part of the story can we not tell from this document?
 How could we verify the content of the piece?
 Does this piece inaccurately reflect anything about the time period?
 What does the author leave out and why does he/she leave it out?
 What is purposely not addressed?

7. Why is there a need to know the limitation of a primary source?

 To explain how this source is not valuable to historians.

8. Why is limitation considered the hardest stage in the OPLV technique?

 Limitation considered the hardest stage because the task here is not to point out
the weaknesses of the source but rather to say: at what point does this source
cease to be of value to us as historians.

9. Why is it being biased does not limit the value of source?

 If you are going to comment on the bias of a document, you must go into detail.
This is again an area for you to show your expertise of the context. You need to
briefly explain the parts of the story that the document leaves out. Give examples
of other documents that might mirror or answer this document.

10. What are the advantages of using OPVL in historical document analysis?


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1. What is the historical importance of Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas among Filipinos in the
light of their search for self- identity and cultural integrity?

2. How did Antonio de Morga describe the Filipinos in terms of the following:
a. Clothing and ornaments
b. Housing
c. Laws and justice system
d. Social stratification
e. Practice of slavery
f. Economic system
g. Religion
3. “There is no good or bad culture. A culture is good if it has some usefulness to the
individual as well as to the society.” In this context, do you agree that the ancient
Filipinos lived the way they do because it was their way of surviving in their own
environment? Do you think their culture served their own purposes in life, i.e., in their
individual and societal life?

4. Do you agree that pre-hispanic Filipinos had their own unique culture before the coming
of the Spaniards? Why?

5. Based on his historical account, in what way was there a “clash” or “conflict” between
the culture, religion, and social life of Antonio de Morga and the early Filipinos? Cite
examples of this “clash” as evidenced in his writing.

6. Cite examples of biases and prejudices in the accounts of Antonio de Morga regarding
the early Filipino people. Do you think these biases and prejudices spring from his own
perspective as a foreigner interpreting the Filipino realities from this own “frame of
reference”? Why?

7. How do you interpret (content and contextual analysis) the following statements of
Morga?
a. “These people are barbarians and have but little capacity.”
b. “They have no priests or religious to attend to religious affairs, except certain old men
and women called catalonas. These were experienced witches and sorcerers, who
kept the other people deceived.”
c. “In matters of religion, the natives proceeded more barbarously and with greater
blindness than in all the rest. For besides being pagans, without any knowledge of the
true God, they neither strove to discover Him by way of reason, nor had any fixed
belief.”
d. “They live also on honey from the mountains, and roots produced by the ground.
They are a barbarous people, in whom one cannot place confidence.”
e. “The natives of the islands of Pintados, especially the women, are very vicious and
sensual. Their perverseness has discovered lascivious methods of communication
between men and women; and there is no one to which they are accustomed form
their youth.”
f. “As long as these natives lived in their paganism, it was not known that they had
fallen into the abominable sin against nature.”
g. Single men are called bagontaos and girls of marriageable are, dalagas. Both classes
are people of little restraint, and from early childhood they have communication with
one another, and mingle with facility and little secrecy, and without this being
regarded among the native as a cause for anger.

8. Why did Morga describe the ancient Filipinos to be Pintados or Painted People? What
does this convey about Filipino arts and culture?
9. In what ways can prehispanic Filipinos become slaves? Was the practice of slavery rigid
like those practiced in Europe during those years?

10. What evidences in the chronicles of Morga show that the ancient Filipinos were already
economically self-sufficient, had rich tradition and culture, as well as organized
government?