MODULE 5:
THE DISCIPLINE OF HISTORY
History
 Came from the Greek word:
o Historia
 “finding out”
 “inquiry”
 “narrative”
 “knowledge acquired by
investigation”
 American Historical Association
o “the never-ending process whereby
people seek to understand the past
and its meaning”
 Will and Ariel Durant presented how
history could be an industry, art, and
philosophy.
o As an industry
 Ferrets out facts
 Primary sources
 Does not rely on hearsay or
unsubstainted questions
o As an art
 Establishes meaning order in
the chaos of materials.
o As a philosophy
 Seeks perspective and
enlightenment
 Must provide critical
interpretation of historical
facts.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HISTORY
 Prehistoric period
o Refers to the time when a system of
writing was not yet invented to
record history, which passed down
through oral tradition.
o Record events by inscribing them in
stones, bones, tablets, and bronze.
o Earliest system of writing were in
the forms of:
 Cuneiform (Mesopotamia)
 Hieroglyphics (Ancient Egypt)
 Logograms (Ancient China &
Greece)
 Calligraphy (China)
 Ancient Egypt
o Written history around the middle
of the third millennium.
o Listed the names of the kinds and
the rules of Egypt.
o Able to create a logical system that
allowed them to establish cycles or
years.
 Ancient Mesopotamia
o Listed history by providing a list of
kings and also wrote narrations
which weaved to historical
accounts.
o Sumerian stele or the standing
stone slabs.
 Stele of the Vultures –
contained inscriptions of wars
with the bordering regions and
depictions of battle.
 Ancient China
o History was used to propagate
Chinese moral philosophy (linked to
their political and social lives)
o Confucius – compiled and studied
Chinese history in the books:
 Chunqui (Spring and Autumn
Annals)
 Shujing (Classic of History)
o Sima Quian – more detailed and
longer historical study:
 Shiji – covered the 2,500-year
period of Chinese history.
 “Father of Chinese History” or
“Grand Historian”
 Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament
o Important historical writing in the
Western civilization.
o Provides a creation story and a list
of kings. (through genealogy)
o Incorporates moral interpretation
to historical accounts.
 Laws & commandments
o Recounts how Hebrews struggled
and endured to live in the promise
land.
 Ancient Greece
o Logographers
 Logos (story)
 Grapho (to write)
 Considered to be the first
historians
o Wrote the origins of people, places,
and towns in prose style.
IMPORTANT PERSONALITIES IN HISTORY
 Added factual data to these
stories like geographic and
cultural information.
 Roman Historiography
o Polybius
 Made analysis on the rise and
fall of Alexander the Great in
comparison to Rome’s
achievement in conquering
most of the known world
without collapsing its political
system and institutions. (using
comparative analysis)
 Wrote about geopolitical and
foreign relations.
 Early Christian concept of history
o World will end with the Second
Coming of Jesus.
o Simply the incarnation, death,
resurrection, and the second
coming of Christ.
 Islamic conception of history
o Relies on the Qur’an
 Traces humanity’s history from
Adam to Muhammad (the
prophet and the founder)
o Relies on the Hadith
 The traditions and saying that
were said to have come
directly from Muhammad.
 Renaissance
o Adhered more to the scientific
Galileo rather than the philosopher
Plato.
o Philology – the study of the original
dorm of texts became popular in
order to augment these obscurities.
o More inquisitive and scientific
revisiting of the past.
 Herodotus
o “Father of History”
o The Histories – narration of events
which took place in the Greco-
Persian War.
o Presented accounts by providing
geographic and ethnographic
information.
 Thucydides
o “Father of Scientific History”
o History of the Peloponnesian War –
recounted events based on
evidence and analysis.
o Narrated facts without becoming
fictional. (w/o using gods & deities)
 Ban Gu
o Book of Han – contained the history
of Han dynasty.
o His approach was the dynastic
framework.
 Leopold von Ranke
 o Founder of modern study of history
o Historical seminar – elaborated on
the methods and techniques in
studying history.
o Strict empirical approach and
adherence to primary sources in
conducting historical research
o Work on different historical period
in an objective manner without
forming generalized conclusions.
 Karl Marx
o “Father of Communism”
o The German Ideology – his theory
on the materialist conception of
history.
o Materialist conception of history –
the material conditions or resources
determines a group’s social
structure and social order.
 Jacob Burkhardt
o “Father of Cultural History”
o The Civilization of the Renaissance
in Italy – depicted the
interconnectedness between art
and its effects on society and social
institutions.
o Regarded art as an important
aspect in history.
 Arnold J. Toynbee
o A Study of History
 12-volume work
 Narrated the history of 26
civilizations, describing how
they overcame challenges with
the guidance and leadership of
an elite group of leaders
o Challenges and response – placing
stages in their histories wherein
each stage is either a failure to
respond or a triumph against
challenges.
THE FIELDS OF HISTORY
 Cultural History
o Focuses on the study of belief
systems, customs, social forms,
political systems, material traits,
and economic activities or a group
or community usually for the
purpose of cross comparison with
others.
 Social History
o Study of particular kinds of
phenomena such as family and
marriage, adolescence and mass
media, and many more.
 Intellectual History
o Looks into the history of ideas and
theories.
o Historiography
 The origin of thought
 The development of school
and approaches are
documented.
 Uses content analysis to
provide critical evaluation of
historical views.
KEY CONCEPTS IN ANTHROPOLOGY
 Significance
o Process of determining which part
of a historical event has more value
to be included in a narrative.
o Entails critical thinking and
selectivity of the historian.
o Lord Hartington six-part criteria:
1. The people thought that the
event was important during
that time.
2. The event affected a lot of
people.
3. It led to other important
events.
 4. It still affects attitudes and
beliefs today.
5. It affected people for a long
time.
6. It affected people deeply.
 Continuity and Change
o Examining the shifts and
transition of institutions, actors,
and landscapes over time.
o Through chronological method.
 Cause and Effect
o Historians inquire on the factors
that led to the events in history.
 Perspective
o The reconstruction of events
require historians to adapt
analytical lenses or perspective.
event or figure. Historical evidence may
be valid by external criticism but may
be invalid internally.
CURRENT APPLICATIONS OF HISTORY
 Museum Studies– a.k.a. museology,
studies how museums developed
through time and their current role in
the society as a depository of evidence
of world history.
 Historical Preservation – preservation
of artifacts and fossils for the use of
future generations is one of the
concerns of applied historians who
utilize historical knowledge and
methodologies in providing context to
social issues for their resolution

RESEARCH METHODS IN HISTORY

 Oral Tradition – can be used to
reconstruct the past and to provide
context to the present.
1. Oral tradition could be documented
and used as a basic historical data
for a group of people.
2. Oral tradition could be used to aid
in the reconstruction of history by
providing supporting perspective
and contextual clues to the
interpretation of artifacts and
fossils.
 External Criticism – method wherein
the historian checks the validity and
originality of the evidence for the use of
reconstruction of historical event or
figure.
 Internal Criticism – method where the
historians checks the validity of the
content of a historical document or
artifacts by comparing it with existing
historical evidence related to the same