Chapter 2

DISCOURSING THE CONTENT AND CONTEXT OF SOME PRIMARY SOURCES IN

PHILIPPINE HISTORY

How To Criticize the Primary and Secondary Sources?

INTERNAL CRITICISM
- It seeks to falsify or demonstrate its
discontinuity with an idea by
hypothetically assuming its truth in
order to prove some internal
inconsistency or contradiction with it.
- Dr. Lynn Sims, history professor at
John Tyler Community College
defines internal criticism as looking
within the data itself to try to
determine truth - facts and
“reasonable” interpretation.
EXTERNAL CRITICISM
- It seeks to falsify an idea without
hypothetically assuming its truth
- Dr. Lynn Sims, history professor at
John Tyler Community College
defines external criticism as physical
and technical tests as dating of paper
a document is written on, but it also
involves a knowledge of when certain
things existed or where possible.

REPOSITORIES OF PRIMARY SOURCES

Where can we find the primary sources?

National Archives of the Philippines

- preserves and makes the primary source of information on Philippine history accessible
to the public.
- home of about 60 million documents from the centuries of Spanish rule in the
Philippines, the American and Japanese occupations, as well as years of the Republic
The Archiver
- created by Republic Act 9470 on May 21, 2017
- strengthened the record-keeping systems and administration program for archival
materials as it is the final repository for the voluminous notarized documents in the
country.
Local repositories of primary sources could be found in museums of provinces, cities, and
municipalities in the locality.
Republic Acts and other legislative enactments or statutes – repositories are the Official
Gazette published by the National Printing Office.
Supreme Court decisions – found at the Philippine Reports
Citations of books, treatises, pleadings and even court decisions – found in the Supreme
Court Reports Annotated (SCRA)
HOW TO ANALYZE PRIMARY SOURCES

 Research method for studying primary sources such as documents and communication
artifacts, which can be text formats.
 Practices and philosophies of content analysis vary according to the location of source
communities.
o They all involve systematic reading or observation of text or artifacts which are
assigned labels (sometimes called codes) to indicate the presence of interesting,
meaningful patterns.
o After labeling a large set of media, a social researcher is able to statistically
estimate the proportions of patterns in the text, as well as correlations between
patterns.
Nowadays, computers are increasingly used to automate the labeling (or coding) of documents
SIX (6) QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED IN CONTENT ANALYSIS (Klaus Krippendorf)
1. Which data are analyzed?
2. How are the data defined?
3. From what population are the data drawn?
4. What is the most relevant context (situation)?
5. What are the boundaries (limitations) of the analysis?
6. What is to be measured?

SIMPLEST AND MOST OBJECTIVE FORMS OF DOING CONTENT ANALYSIS

Unambiguous characteristics of text like word frequencies (this are analyzed through meaning
of the word surrounding the text), the page area taken by a newspaper column, or a duration of
radio or television program
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS (Textual Analysis)
Here are some specific questions to ask in analyzing primary sources:
1. What kind of document do you have? Is it a treatise letter? A manuscript or a printed
document?
2. Was it published? If yes, when and where?
3. Who is the author? What position, role, reputation, status did the author have at the time
of writing?
4. Is the author well-known today or at the time of writing?
5. Who is the intended audience?
6. Who read this text at the time? What are the responses of those who read it?
7. What was to be gained and what were the risks in writing this text?
8. How is this document related to other primary documents known to you, particularly from
the same time period?
9. Does this document square with what you know from secondary sources?
10. What evidence do you have for your claim about the text?
So, the history student must critically analyze/examine the text (article, book, etc.) based
on these guidelines:

1. What was argued or described by the writer?

2. How did the writer present his argument or point of view?
3. Why did the writer choose (for example, persuasion) as the method of presentation?
4. What evidences or arguments that the writer used in (persuading) his audience?
Remember: the audience are not the history students in this subject but those people being persuaded
5. What does the writer ultimately hope to achieve by writing this particular text?

Hence, the main goal of carefully examining the primary source is to construct new
knowledge or to use the information that the primary source (document sample) to
explore broader historical issues or context.

Sa Aking Mga Kabata ni Dr. Jose P. Rizal

Kapagka ang baya’y sadyang umiibig

Sa kanyang salitang kaloob ng langit,
Sanlang kalayaan nasa ring masapit
Katulad ng ibong nasa himpapawid.
Pagka’t ang salita’y isang kahatulan
Sa bayan, sa nayo’t mga kaharian,
At ang isang tao’y katulad, kabagay
Ng alin mang likha noong kalayaan.

Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang salita

Mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda,
Kaya ang marapat pagyamaning kusa
Na tulad sa inang tunay na nagpala.

Ang wikang Tagalog tulad din sa Latin

Sa Ingles, Kastila at salitang anghel,
Sapagka’t ang Poong maalam tumingin
Ang siyang naggawad, nagbigay sa atin.

Ang salita nati’y huwad din sa iba

Na may alfabeto at sariling letra,
Na kaya nawala’y dinatnan ng sigwa
Ang lunday sa lawa noong dakong una.
 Spoliarium: The Analogy of Dead Gladiators

The Latin word "Spoliarium" refers to a holding area in the Roman Colosseum where
corpses of fallen gladiators were brought. If a gladiator met his death in the arena, a
ceremony would be started in which a man dress like Charon claims the body. The
gladiator's weapons like his "gladius" (meaning sword-thus we get the word gladiator) will
be gathered or collected. A group of Roman slaves or workers would then come in to collect
the corpse. They will drag the body from the sandy arena using chains and a big hook
inserted or attached to the carcass. Still, if it is a legendary gladiator, they will carry him in a
stretcher, entering first a gate which was appropriately called the "PORTA LIBITINARIA" (or
the entrance of Libitina ). Libitina is an ancient Roman goddess of funerals and burial.
These people who take care of the corpses or the undertakers were collectively known as
"libitinarii." Today we can liken them to the "Ahente ng Punerarya."

The gate of Libitana is actually a passage leading to the "Spoliarium." One German History
professor called it "Totenkammer"- the chamber of the dead. Once inside the Spoliarium,
the body of the dead gladiator would be stripped of whatever armor or protection he still
has and would be prepared for burial. If it is a legendary gladiator who fell, people would
often mingle in the place hoping to collect or have a dip of his blood, which they believe
holds extraordinary power. If it is a gladiator with no name, then he really died a lonely
death, for in the Spoliarium he would just be treated worse than the dead animals that
perished in the Roman games. (wild animals that passed in the arena were usually
butchered and sold as exotic meat in Roman markets)

Many say that Luna's Spoliarium was an allegory of 19th century Philippine society that
looking at the painting brings horrors to the eyes of an uncomplicated looker. But its also a
record of history. It shows the brutality and indifference of the human race. Juan Luna's
Spoliarium is universal.