READINGS IN PH HISTORY

IMPORTANCE OF
STUDYING HISTORY
&

HISTORICAL SOURCES
KARYLL MITRA, J.D.

REFERENCE: Candelaria, Alporha, Kunting (2021), Readings in Philippine History, Quezon City, Rex
Bookstore, Inc.
DISCUSSION GUIDE
01 IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING HISTORY
Definition and Evolution
Issues and Question
Why study history?

02 HISTORICAL SOURCES
Classification
Primary
Secondary
External and Internal Criticism
HISTORY Definition.
History has existed for around 2400 years.
History was derived from the Greek word "historia."
Knowledge acquired through inquiry and or investigation
Term was then adopted to classical Latin where it acquired a
new definition:
Account of the past of a person or a group of people
through written documents and historical evidence
History can refer to two (2) things:
History relates to everything that had happened in the past;
and/or
A kind of research or inquiry
The second one will be our focus - History as a discipline
or a field of study and investigation which is primarily
concerned with human activities done in the past
HISTORY As a research/inquiry.
Broken down into three (3) dimensions:
History's focus on HUMAN activities
Compared to other disciplines such as:
Theology
Myths of legends
History as an inquiry
History falls in the sciences, particularly the social sciences
History as an inquiry seeks to answer questions through the
conduct of a systematic and methodical collection of data
and evidence
History is concerned with the PAST
Unlike other social science disciplines which are focused on
the present
History seeks to explain past events and processes
HISTORY Evolution.
It was during Ancient Greek civilization that history became
concerned with human activities.
Recording the past through historical sources was pioneered by
Herodotus, an Ancient Greek historian.
He is known as the Father of History
His purpose was to describe the deeds of men in the past for
posterity or future use; to retell past human activities, and explain
the reasons behind such deeds
Herodotus' successor was Thucydides, also an Ancient Greek
historian.
Known as a the Father of Scientific History
Highlighted the importance of systematic and impartial
collection of evidence as an essential prerequisite in writing
history
For Thucydides, the only reliable source of history were
testimonies of eyewitnesses. A method called oral history.
HISTORY Evolution.
Herodotus and Thucydides' focus was limited geographic space
and of recent historical period - within living memory.
The remote past is unknowable
They soon developed the notion that there's a world outside
Greek society; that history is vast and cannot be captured in the
memory of a single generation.
A new historical method was developed - the study of the
remote past through a compilation of various works and records
kept by different people at different places and times.
records meticulously kept
written accounts were produced and likewise kept
History evolved to give primacy to written documents over other
kinds of historical sources.
ISSUES AND QUESTIONS
In the 19th century, a particular school of thought emerged -
POSITIVISM.
It asserts that real knowledge lies in actual observation of
facts. For an idea to be real, it must be verified with sensory
experience
No document, no history
The key issue that positivism lied on the fact that no document
can capture entire historical truths.
What of people who did not have records of anything? Do
they, therefore, not have history?
Historians recognized the loophole which then started the use of
other kinds of historical sources - not written, but just as valid.
History, thus, became more inclusive and started
collaborating with other disciplines
ISSUES AND QUESTIONS
In the medieval period, when Christianity and the Church
became the most powerful institution, history ceased to
be a record of man's deeds.
It started to be a record of how man became
instrumental in the fulfillment of the divine plan
God already predetermined man's destiny
History became a crucial part of the endeavor to
discover and expound on the divine plan
 ISSUES AND QUESTIONS
As history developed, several historians argued that studying history
should not have any other purpose but for its own sake.
The movement was referred to as historicism; primarily advocated by
Leopold van Ranke, a leading positivist historian in the 19th century
Ranke argued that historians are tasked to merely bring the past to life.
Assigning a pragmatic reason for the study of the past renders a sense
of partiality or bias
Ranke's view failed to consider that any historical writing would always be
influenced by the context of the historian who is writing.
States and governments have used history to unite a nation and
legitimize regimes by forging a sense of collective identity through
manufacture of social memory
North Korea and Nazi Germany which prescribed official versions of
their history
Distorted notions of the past were used to justify atrocious policies and
escape historical accountability
The Marcos' Family's systemic revisions of history to achieve
acquittal

REFERENCE: Candelaria, Alporha, Kunting (2021), Readings in Philippine History, Quezon City, Rex
Bookstore, Inc.
WHY STUDY HISTORY?
Historian creates a guide for the following generations
To equip those that come after us with lessons of past human actions
enabling and empowering them to control their destiny
Historians is duty-bound to rescue the past from entities who intend to
use it to escape accountability, justify oppression, and spread deceit
History can be an "inventory of alternatives."
It's not always to learn from the mistakes of the past, as if everything
that happened was a mistake

R.G. COLLINGWOOD
"Knowing yourself means knowing what you can do; and
since nobody knows what he can do until he tries, the
only clue to what man can do is what man has done."
HISTORICAL SOURCES
Why is it important to classify and analyze historical sources?
Historians cannot access the past aside from looking at its
representation.
Historians often worked in the context of scarcity.
Historical sources are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle
The objective is to produce a full picture

Historical sources can be classified between PRIMARY and

SECONDARY sources.
The classification DEPENDS on the HISTORICAL SUBJECT being
studied.
HISTORICAL SOURCES
PRIMARY
Sources produced SIMULTANEOUSLY as the event, period, or subject being
studied.
EXAMPLE:
A historian wishes to explore the Commonwealth Convention of 1935.
Potential primary sources can thus include: minutes of the convention,
newspaper clips, records of the convention, et al.

SECONDARY
Sources produced by an AUTHOR who RELIED on PRIMARY SOURCES to
write the material.
EXAMPLE:
Teodoro Agoncillo's Revolt of the Masses which was written on the subject
of Philippine Revolution.
CRITICISM ON PRIMARY SOURCES
To avoid deception, and to come up with historical truth, historians and
students need to thoroughly scrutinize historical sources.

Criticism is extremely crucial on primary sources because they are

subjected to levels of deterioration (old age) or forgery.

INTERNAL CRITICISM EXTERNAL CRITICISM

Examination of the content of the The practice of verifying evidence's
document. authenticity by examining its physical
Looking at the content of the source and characteristics.
examining the circumstance of its
production EXAMPLES:
Looks at the evidence's truthfulness by quality of paper
looking at the author (source and printing and copying technique
background), document's context. the language and words used in the material
agenda behind its production, intended
purpose, etc.
VERIFIED CASES OF DECEPTION
Code of Kalantiaw
The Code details certain barbaric laws implemented by Datu Kalantiaw.
Closer scrutiny revealed that pre-Hispanic Philippine societies were not
barbaric. The third article also mentioned "hour" as a measure of time.
Ancient Filipino societies did not use such measure.

Ferdinand Marcos Sr.'s claims

Marcos claimed that he received prestigious award from the US
Government and that it was Gen. MacArthur himself that pinned one of
the medals to him.
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines concluded
that the "awards" were not real
Archives of MacArthur Memorial contains no mention of such pinning
Marcos allegedly led a guerilla unit called "Ang Mga Maharlika."
The unit was never significantly recognized by the US Government