Introduction - History

Philippine History and the Dominican

Role In Philippine Nation-Building
•HISTORY
?
 WHAT IS HISTORY?
• CAME FROM THE GREEK WORD
HISTORIA/HISTORIE -----> which means
learning, inquiry or investigation
 For the early Greeks like Aristotle…

• “History is a systematic
explanation of a natural
phenomenon regardless if
it is chronological or not.”
 Traditional Definition
• History
– Record of the Past
– Record of Human past from the time written
records began to appear
• Weak definition – based only on written records
• Interviews /Oral History /Oral traditions and Cultural
artifacts – not considered
• “No written records, no history”
 Modern Definition
• History…
– The reconstruction of the past based:
• Available written records, oral history, cultural artifacts, and folk
traditions
– The study of events and developments – people in the past
– Involves – collection, analysis, and synthesis – sources
• Historians should do the important tasks:
– Interpret and recreate facts in an orderly and intelligble manner
– Discover patterns and trends
• HISTORY
– Interpretative and imaginative study of surviving records of the
past, either written or unwritten, in order to determine the
meaning scope of human existence
 HISTORY
• A COMMON DEFINITION OF HISTORY IS
THAT IT IS THE PAST OF MANKIND
(Gottschalk, p. 43).
 Impact of the 19th century
• Influence of the Positivist and Empiricist
school

• What is its impact?

- History became a science.
- NO DOCUMENT,NO HISTORY.
Leopold Von Ranke- Father of Scientific
History
 HISTORY AS A DISCIPLINE OF THE
SOCIAL SCIENCES
• A SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF WRITTEN AND
UNWRITTEN ACCOUNTS ABOUT THE PAST. A
DISCIPLINE OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES THAT
DEALS WITH TOPICS ABOUT PAST EVENTS.
•Why do we
need to study
history?
 Uses and Importance
• Bridging the Gap between the Present and the
Past
• Explaining Causes of things and events
• Projecting the Future
• Interpreting Conditions of a Given Space and
Time
• Promoting Nationalism and Patriotism
• Tool in understanding national identity
Element of History

• People
• Location
• Context
• Sources
 People
• Most important
element
 Location
• National
• Local
 Context
• When?
• What kind of culture?
What kind of Philosophies?
• What kind of Environment?
• Periodization? Chronology?
• Cause and Effect
 Sources
• Written or Inscribed
Sources
– Birth and Death
Certificates
– Marriage Certificates
– Directories
– Church Records
– Letters and Diaries
– Census Reports
– Surveyor’s Notes
– Title Deeds
– School Records
– Government Records
– Business Records
– Police Records
– Books, Journals, and
magazines
– Souvenir Programs
– Hospital Records
– Inscriptions
 Sources
• Graphic/ Visual Materials • Folklore and Oral
and Artifacts Literature
– Photographs • Oral history
– Heirlooms and keepsakes • Interviews
– Arts and crafts
– Tools, Weapons and
utensils
– Old structures and
landmarks
– Buried Artifacts
– Skeletal Remains with
funerary furniture and
paraphernalia
 Problems and Difficulties in the
Writing and Study of History
• Scarcity of Written Materials especially in the
local level
• Problems of translation with regard to documents
written in Spanish and other foreign languages
• Biases and Prejudices on the part of the foreign
writers
• The lack of representative materials for the whole
country
• Lack of trained historians
 Major Views and Philosophies in the
Study of History
• Cyclical
• Providential
• Progressive and Linear
• The Marxist and Leftist-Socialist
• Relativist
 Reasons for Interpreting Philippine
History from a Nationalist Point of
View
• Foreign Interpretation is biased and
prejudiced
• Filipinos have Greater Familiarity with and
Understanding of their own culture and
history
• The Filipino point of view can help promote
Nationalism and Patriotism
As Students and Historians, We need
the following skills:
 Does history repeats itself?
• No, because each historical event has a
different set of elements.
 How can an event become part of history?

• Need record.
• Called in history as sources
• Archives – collection of documents and other
sources about the past
HOW DID HISTORICAL WRITING DEVELOP
IN THE PHILIPPINES?
• HISTORICAL WRITING IN THE PHILIPPINES
STARTED IN THE FORM OF CHRONICLES OR
ACCOUNTS WRITTEN BY SPANIARDS IN THE
16TH CENTURY.
• ETHNOGRAPHY OR OBSERVATION OF SPANISH
COLONIZERS – RECORDS OF THEIR
OBSERVATIONS AND TRAVELS IN THE
PHILIPPINES
 Early documents

AUTHOR BOOK
• Miguel de Loarca • Relacion de las islas Filipinas
• Juan de Placencia • Relacion de las costumbres
de los indios se han tener
en estas islas and
Instruccion de las
costumbres que
antiguamente tenian los
naturales de la Pampanga
en sus Plietos
 Early document

author book
• Pedro Chirino • Relacion de las islas Filipinas
• Antonio de Morga • Sucesos de las islas Filipinas
• Traveler in Visayas • Boxer code/manuscript
• Francisco Alcina • Historia de las islas e Indios
de las Bisayas
 CONTENTS:
WHAT TYPE OF HISTORY?

• EVENTS ABOUT THE SPANIARDS IN THE

PHILIPPINES
• EVENTS ABOUT THEIR RELATIONS WITH THE
FILIPINOS
• RECORD OF THEIR OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE
FILIPINOS
 19th century
• REFORM MOVEMENT WROTE ACCOUNTS
ABOUT THEIR HISTORY AS A REACTION TO THE
SPANISH ACCOUNTS ABOUT THE FILIPINOS
• ESSAYS, NOVELS, POEMS, AND OTHER FORMS
OF LITERATURE
 AMERICAN PERIOD
• HISTORICAL WRITING MUST BE BASED ON
SOURCES OR DOCUMENTS
 AMERICAN PERIOD
2 IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF HISTORY:

– BASED ON FACTS FROM DOCUMENTS

– CHRONOLOGICAL EVENTS
 POST-WAR PERIOD
• Teodoro Agoncillo developed a new perspective
on history writing
– History as interpretation
– Writing of history from the Filipino perspective
 Post-war Period
• Marxist perspective
– Renato Constantino

• Pantayong Pananaw
 Annales School
• Multi-disciplinary history
• Local History
• Fernand Braudel
• Marc Bloch
• Lucien Febvre
 How can an event become part of history?

• Technically, to become part of history an event

must be recorded or written.
 How about us?
– There are societies who did not have any written
records of their past. May ilang lipunan o
mamamayan na hindi naisulat ang kanilang
kasaysayan.
– Some did not know how to read and write.
– Some did not have the necessary tools for
writing
– Some were not able to preserve their written
accounts.
If people did not have written accounts, do
they still have a history?
• For some ethno-linguistic groups, their history
are not written.
• They are oral in form
• Oral history
 What is oral history?

• Pass their knowledge, culture, tradition and

history through words of mouth.
• Usually in the form of stories, songs, folktales,
epics, myths and legends.
• Although they are not written, we can consider
these forms as history because these provide us
a clear description of their society’s past
How can an event become
part of history?
 (FACTS FROM SOURCES)
PERSONS, PLACE, EVENTS, SOURCES

(HISTORIAN)
PERFORMS HISTORICAL METHODOLOGY
• INTERPRETATION
• ANALYSIS
• SELECTION
• CORROBORATION
• WRITING WITH ELEGANCE

=
HISTORY
HISTORICAL FACT
 FUNCTIONS OF A HISTORIAN
• Writes history by following a rigorous
method known as historical methodology
– For a fact to become a historical fact, it
needed corroboration from two or more
sources.
• Am I an art or science?

- History
HISTORY AS SCIENCE

• As a social science, history

follows the scientific method.
 HISTORY AS A SCIENCE
• History is more of a science because it is
primarily based on facts
• Historian follows a rigorous method in history
writing- historical methodology.
 Historical Methodology

• Choosing a topic
• Gathering of sources
• Examination of sources or Historical Criticism
– External and Internal Criticism
• Extraction of data from authentic and credible
sources
• Writing of history – must be well-organized,
coherent and elegantly written
 What is historical criticism?
• In historical methodology, sources must be
authentic and credible
• It examines the authenticity and credibility of
sources
• It has two levels.
 External criticism
• Examines the physical appearance of the document
(example: color of paper used, condition and
characteristics of the paper, ink used, handwriting
style, etc. )
• Answers the following questions:
– What, where, when and how was the document acquired?
– Is the document original or a copy of the original
– Is the document primary or secondary?
– Is the document authentic?
 Internal criticism
• Higher level of criticism
• Examines the content and interpretation of
the document
• Examines the content of the document
• Examine the words used in the document
 HISTORY AS AN ART
• History is an art because the historian
interprets facts from sources.
• When the historian writes history, it must be
well-organized, coherent and elegant.
 Components of history
• SOURCES - contain facts
• HISTORIAN - performs the historical
methodology; examines the authenticity and
credibility of the sources; writes, interprets and
organizes facts.
 Is history related to the other social
sciences?
• Annales School- interdisciplinary history
• Use of theories and methods of other social
sciences
• Led to the creation of other subfields of history
– political history
– economic history
– cultural history
– social history
– environmental history