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A Context analysis

Guide Questions

1. What is history? How is your understanding of history

different from what is explained in this lesson?
2. What does a historian do? As a student of history, what do
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you think will be your “duties”?
3. What role does history take in the study of Philippine earning utcomes
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society, culture, and identity?
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
4. How did the word “history” come about? Discuss its
1. Identify the differences between a primary source and a
etymology and evolution.
secondary source
5. How is history commonly defined according to Gottschalk?
2. Enumerate materials which can be considered primary
sources
Activity I
3. Evaluate materials in terms of authenticity, credibility,
Form groups of five members. Pause for a few minutes and and provenance
think about or reflect on your past. Has your past influenced you
m one way or another? How does your past shape your identity
and behavior? Discuss your answers with your groupmates.
What are Sources?

Activity 2 In his work, Understanding History, Gottschalk (1950)

discusses the importance of sources for the historian’s work:
Research on what Teodoro Agoncillo, Reynaldo Ileto, and
Renato Constantino said about history. Do you agree with them? The historian, however, has to use many
materials that are not in books. Where
Share your findings and opinions with the class.
these are archeological, epigraphical, or
munismatical materials, he has to depe?id
largely on museums. Where there are official
records, he may have to search for them in
archives, courthouses, government libraries,
etc. Where there are private papers not
available in official collections, he may have to
hunt among the papers of business houses, the
muniment rooms of ancient castles, the prized
possessions of autograph collectors, the records
 .I

6 Context Analysis Understanding Sources

7
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of parish churches, etc. Having some subject in 3. Old maps that may reveal how space and geography
mind, with more or less definite delimitation were used to emphasize trade routes, structural build
of the persons, areas, times, and functions (i.e., up, etc.
the economic, political, intellectual, diplomatic,
or other occupational aspects) involved, he
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looks for materials that may have some bearing '3
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upon those persons in that area at the time they
function in that fashion. These materials are
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his sources. The more precise his delimitation ,X Vt
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of persons, area, time, and function, the more D
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relevant his sources are likely to he. (52-53) t ^ t
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It is from historical sources that our history is studied and

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written. But in analyzing them, several methodologies and I
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theories were used by historians to properly study history and }
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glean from the sources what is, for them, a proper way of writing ^ *u«if

history to enhance and disseminate national identity. I .1

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Primary Sources J*' ■ffr''

Primary sources are materials produced by people or groups I

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directly involved in the event or topic being studied. These
people are either participants or eyewitnesses to the event. These i FIGURE 1. Map showing the Katipunan movement by D. A. Navarro
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sources range from eyewitness accounts, diaries, letters, legal i
documents, official documents (government or private), and even
4. Cartoons for political expression or propaganda
photographs. I
5. Material evidence of the prehistoric past like cave
i Formally, there are eight examples of these primary sources:
i drawings, old syllabaries, and ancient writings
1. Photographs that may reflect social conditions of
6. Statistical tables, graphs, and charts
historical realities and everyday life
7. Oral history or recordings by electronic means of
2. Old sketches and drawings that may indicate the
accounts of eyewitnesses or participants; the recordings
conditions of life of societies in the past )
are then transcribed and used for research.
 I

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8 CONTEXT Analysis Understanding Sources
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8. Published and unpublished primary documents,

Secondary Sources
eyewitness accounts, and other written sources
Gottschalk simply defines secondary sources as “the
testimony of anyone who is not an eyewitness—that is of one
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who was not present at the event of which he tells” (p. 53).
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fell' < These are books, articles, and scholarly journals that had
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subjects of history.
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3 Guide Questions
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1. what is the main distinction between primary source and
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secondary source?
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2. Why is primary source important in the study of history?
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3. What is the purpose of a secondary source?
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4. At present, how do you discriminate between contradicting
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5. Why should official records of the government be made
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y:. Ed Activity I
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E^Wvs%v.,Jsy,|^.. , Read the excerpts below then do a comparative analysis.
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J'4^ The following readings discuss the findings on the remains of
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pav, what was then considered the earliest known human remains in
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the Philippines—Tabon Man.

® Robert B. Fox. The Tabon Caves: Archaeological

FIGURE 2. Front page of The Sunday Tribune published
Explorations and Excavations on Palawan Island,
February 10.1935 featuring the approval of the
Constitution of the Philippine Commonwealth Philippines (Manila, 1970) p. 40.
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Tabon Man - During the initial excavations
of Tabon Cave, June and July, 1962, the
scattered fossil bones of at least three
individuals were excavated, including a large
fragment of a frontal bone with the brows and
10 Context Analysis
portions of the nasal bones. These fossil bones
were recovered towards the rear of the cave
along the left wall. Unfortunately, the area in
which the human fossil bones were discovered
had been disturbed by Magapode birds. It
was not possible in 1962 to establish the
association of these bones with a specific flake
assemblage. Although they were provisionally
related to either Flake Assemblage II or III,
subsequent excavations in the same area now
strongly suggest that the fossil human bones
were associated with Flake Assemblage III for
only the flakes of this assemblage have been
found to date in this area of the cave. The
available data would suggest that Tabon Man
may be dated from 22,000 to 24,000 years
ago. But, only further excavations in the cave
and chemical analysis of human and animal
bones from disturbed and undisturbed levels
in the cave will define the exact age of the
human fossils.
The fossil bones are those of Homo
sapiens. These will form a separate study by
a specialist which will be included in the final
site report for Tabon Cave. It is important,
however, because of a recent publication
(Scott, 1969), that a preliminary study of
the fossil bones of Tabon Man shows that it
is above average in skull dimensions when
compared to the modern Filipino. There
IS no evidence that Tabon Man was "... a
less brainy individual...” [Scott (1969) 36].
Moreover, Scott’s study includes many
misstatements about the Tabon Caves,
always the problem when writers work from
conversations.
Understanding Sources
II
● William Henry Scott. Prehispanic Source Materials
for the Study of Philippine History (Revised Edition)
(Quezon City, 1984), pp. 14-15.
Tabon Man - The earliest human skull
remains known in the Philippines are the
fossilized fragments of a skull and jawbone of
three individuals who are collectively called
"Tabon Man” after the place where they
were found on the west coast of Palawan.
Tabon Cave appears to be a kind of little
Stone Age factory: both finished tools and
waste cores and flakes have been found at
four different levels in the main chamber.
Charcoal left from cooking fires has been
recovered from three of these assemblages
and dated by C-14 to roughly 7,000 B.C.,
20,000 B.C., and 28,000 B.C. with an
earlier level lying so far below these that
it must represent Upper Pleistocene dates
like 45 or 50 thousand years ago....Physical
anthropologists who have examined the
Tabon skullcap are agreed that it belonged
to modern man—that is, Homo sapiens as
distinguished from those mid-Pleistocene
species nowadays called Homo erectus. Two
experts have given the further opinion that the
mandible is "Australian” in physical type, and
that the skullcap measurements are mostly
nearly like those of Ainus and Tasmanians.
What this basically means is that Tabon Man
was "pre-Mongoloid,” Mongoloid being
the term anthropologists apply to the racial
stock which entered Southeast Asia during
the Holocene and absorbed earlier peoples
to produce the modern Malay, Indonesian,
12 Context Analysis
Filipino, and Pacific peoples popularly—and
unscientifically—called, "the brown race.”
Tabon Man presumably belonged to one of
those earlier peoples, but, if decently clothed
m flesh, T-shirt, and blue jeans, might pass
unnoticed in Quiapo today, whatever his
facial features are concerned, nothing can be
said about the color of his skin or hair, or the
shape of his nose or eyes—except one thing:
Tabon Man was not a Negrito.
a. Which is the primary source and the secondary source
between the two readings?
b. Do a credibility analysis of the sources. Who between
the two authors is more credible to talk about the
topic?
Activity 2
Work in pairs. Look for the sources used by the Philippines
and China in their respective claims of sovereignty over the
Scarborough Shoal and identify which are primary sources. Also
look for the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and
explain the reason for its decision. Present your findings in class.
UNDERSTANDING
PERSPECTIVE
1
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istorical sources are written by various authors with
different perspectives. Perspective refers to the point of
view of the said writer who was a witness to the event.
Though historical sources are important in the writing of history,
the historian is careful in using these sources as the writer may
be biased or prejudiced on the subject he/she is discussing. For
example, missionary chronicles or narratives that were written by
the religious missionaries who came to the Philippines to spread
Christianity in the islands usually referred to the early Filipinos
as barbarians or uncivilized. This, of course, is not true as it is
known that Filipinos already had a form of civilization and had
contact with Asian neighbors before the Spaniards arrived.
Different participants who also wrote their accounts can also
give varied opinions and statements about a single event. For
example, the Philippine Revolution of 1896 can be read from the
point of view of the Filipinos and from the side of the Spaniards.
The same event can be viewed from the lens of foreigners
who were in the Philippines at that time and were just passive
observers. In any case, reading a historical event from the points
of view of all sides will enable us to form our own studies about
the said event.