PERSPECTIVES, APPROACHES

AND MYTHS IN HISTORY

Joel S. Regala
Asst. Professor
General Education Department
Holy Angel University
⚫ Bakit mahalaga ang pagligo sa
sinaunang batis ng Kasaysayan?
⚫ “Why history matters?”
KASAYSAYAN

“Ang kasaysayan ay mga salaysay ng mga

pangyayaring may saysay para sa grupo
ng taong sinasalaysayan nito
- Dr. Zeus Salazar
• History has a vital role in crafting a better
future for our grandchildren.
• What kind of society they will be
inheriting from us.
Proto-Filipino

⚫ Malay- Beyer
⚫ Brown People –Jocano
⚫ Austronesians- Bellwood
⚫ Nusantao- Solheim
Different Historical
Perspectives
 Zaide

⚫ Pro- Colonial

⚫ Pro- Church
“You don’t just divide and rule, you also
insult.”

Bestias
mono cargado
de oro

Brainless
gugus
monkeys
⚫ To control a people you must first
control what they think about
themselves and what they think about
their history and culture. And when
your conqueror makes you ashamed
of your culture and your history, he
needs no prison walls and no chains
to hold you. The chains on your mind
are more than enough.” – John Henry
Clark
 Agoncillo

⚫ Nationalist

⚫ Colonizers- enemies
 Constantino

⚫ Marxist

⚫ Elite vs. Masses

 Ileto

⚫ History from below

 Tan

⚫ History of the Minority

 Enemy side

⚫ Views from Padre Damaso or Uncle Sam

“ The Philippine-
American War
was the most
legitimate and
humane war ever
conducted on the
face of the earth.”
Thirty thousand killed a million.”
- Mark Twain
 Small side

⚫ History of the “inarticulate”

Andres Bonifacio of Tondo Andres “Andy” Bonifacio of Masantol

 Small side

⚫ History of
the “inarticulate”
Examples of historical myths and
consequences
⚫ H. Otley Beyer (anthropologist)’s wave
migration theory resulting in a racialized,
atomized view of culture in the
Philippines
⚫ Historians’ Code of Kalantiaw, Code of
Maragtas and the Golden Salakot,
resulting in totally distorted views of
precolonial society in the Philippines.
Myth-making is a function of power. In the
social sciences, myths come out of

⚫ victors writing about the vanquished,

⚫ colonial rulers writing about the colonial
subjects,
⚫ men writing about women
⚫ the majority writing about minorities
⚫ the rich writing about the poor.
-Dr. Michael Tan
 PERIODIZATION

⚫ Pre-Spanish/Colonial Period
⚫ SpanishPeriod
⚫ American Period
⚫ Japanese Period
⚫ ENCOUNTER
⚫ SINAUNANG BAYAN/EARLY
HISTORY
 3 KINDS OF HISTORY
by Friedrich Nietzsche
⚫ MONUMENTAL – Account of Greatness
of past generations
⚫ ANTIQUARIAN – Landscape of memory
⚫ CRITICAL – If you survey the past, you
must be ready to question it
How do you know that what you know is
true?
 Historical Reconstruction

⚫ “The known past is infinitely smaller than

the actual past. Thus, the historian can
illuminate only fragments of the past,
not the past itself”
-Furay and Salvouris, 2010

(Source: In The Blood: Tracing the

Kapampangan Lineage of Andres Bonifacio)
Dakal a Salamat!