A Course Module for Readings in Philippine History John Lee Candelaria Veronica C. Alporha Ayshia F. Kunting Authors Published & Distributed by @ REX Book Store {856 Nicanor Reyes Sr. St ‘el. Nos: 8736-0567 /8733-6746 2161-65 Freedom Bidg.. CM, Recto Avenue ‘Tel. Nos: 8522-4521/8522-4107 ‘Manila, Philippines, worw.rexcomph‘Bonk few ty Rea Roo Store, Ie ond John tee Candelans © Veronica €. Alporha ‘ayia Kunting RES A Cour Module for Readings in Piinine History SN SRT Gessacete” Mosul (0488-00070) 25, ane dist by Rex Book Store, Inc. (RSI) with main office at BSG Nicanor Reyes Se St, Sampaloc, Manila / “clue = cunsme Interaction Center / Tel, Nos: 8857-7777, 8857-7743-48, 8857-7794 to 97 / Emall Adress: wz0N «MORAVIA: ESE A. fies S) Si. Sempaloe. Manila / Tel, Nos. 8736-0567, 8733-6746 + RECTO: 2161-65 Freedom Bldg, CM, Recto Ave, No sstl-ees, 8502-4107 + CUBAO: Unit 10 UGE Dove Conslacon Bide. 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(CLAP); Asian Publishers Resources Cente (APRC) eps’ vaernatons ok basecatice Memberships: Inleratonel Publahers Aszadation (IPA); Asia Pate Publishers Association (APPA); vas Lee bepaton isePh, Plppie 400 Pushing Gevelopment Federation (Philaook) Primes by @ ‘epg COMPAID, ne, ‘ta tesa eis, Quen City (Tel, No. 8857-7778 Ab HeverUb, OCT Fm Hahn HIT 4 ye GE GUT Mey MTB BYE Pye) CONTENTS 4AQ" vil Acknowledgments ix Preface Unit |: Introduction to History 2 LESSON 1: 10 LESSON 2: 16 | LESSON 3: 23 LESSON 4: Unit I: Meaning of History Definition and Subject Matter Issues and Questions History and the Historian Who Qualifies as a Historian? Tasks of Historians The Objectivity of the Historian Historical Sources Classification of Historical Sources External and Internal Criticism of Primary Sources Philippine Historiography History of Philippine History Analyzing Primary Sources in Philippine History 35 LESSON 5: 49 LESSON 6: Early Philippine Society and the First Spanish Contact The, Laguna Copperplate Inscription Chau Ju-kua’s Chu Fan Chi . Antohio Pigafetta’s First Voyage Around the World by Magellan The Philippines Under Spain Juan de Plasencia’s Customs of the Tagalog Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas FilipinasFrancisco de Sande's Letter to Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa 65 LESSON7: —_Revolts and Revolution Diego Silang’s Letter to the British Hermano Pule's Cofradia de San Jose through Its Hymns Selected Primary Sources on the Philippine Revolution: The Kartilya ng Katipunan, Emilio Aguinaldo's Mga Gunita ng Himagsikan, and the Declaration of Philippine Independence 85 LESSONS: _The Philippines Under the United States Filipino Grievances Against Governor-General Wood Public Land Laws of the United States Colonial Government Political Caricature of the American Era and Japanese Wartime Visual Propaganda 106 LESSON 9: Postwar Period and Neocolonialism in the Philippines CIA Intelligence Memorandum No. 296 of June 1950 Leon O. Ty's “It's Up to You Now” and the Magsaysay Myth Corazon Aquino’s Speech before the U.S. Congress Unit Il: Problems in Interpreting Philippine History 125 LESSON 10: Historical Interpretation The Battle of Mactan The First Catholic Mass in the Philippines Rizal's Retraction 139 LESSON 11: — Multiperspectivity The Cavite Mutiny The Cry of Rebellion Philippine-American War or Insurrection? 156 LESSON12: Historical Negationism Rizal's Sa Aking Mga KabataMarcos and History The Jabidah Massacre Representation in History History from Below Women in Philippine History Moros in Philippine History Critical Perspectives in Philippine History Peopling of the Philippines Legacies of Colonization The “Puppet” President Jose P. Laurel Issues in Philippine History 171 LESSON 13: 183 LESSON 14: Unit IV: 201 LESSON 15: 217 LESSON 16: 239 LESSON 17: 258 LESSON 18: 272 LESSON 19: Social History Women’s History Chinese in the Philippines Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Minorities Political History Evolution of the Philippine Constitution Philippine Elections and Political Parties Government Peace Treaties with Muslim Filipinos Economic History Policies on Agrarian Reform Evolution of Philippine Taxation Trade Policies and the Philippine Economy Cultural History Philippine Epic Poetry Philippine Festivals and Celebrations Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage Environmental History DisastersUnit Vv: Doing History 292 LESSON 20: 300 317 331 LESSON 21: LESSON 22: LESSON 23: LESSON 24: Index Diseases and Epidemics Environmental Degradation Historical Research Libraries and Archives The Internet Avoiding Plagiarism Life History and Biographical Research Biography and Life History Writing Life Histories Local and Oral History Local History Oral History Interviewing as a Method History through Paintings and Films Painting Philippine History and Analyzing Art Filming Philippine History and Reading Historical Films Historical Sites, Structures, and Museums Historical Sites and Structures MuseumsACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing during a global pandemic is not, in any way, an easy task. However, the Low for Fesponding to the challenges of the time and the need to prepare for the new normal are too strong to set aside. This module was first written as a textbook in 2018. Back then, we did not have comparable texts to refer to, as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)-prescribed syllabus was totally new. Yet, as scholars and educators of History, we know we had to rise to the challenge and exhaust our capabilities to produce a text that we feel would greatly benefit twenty-first century Filipino learners in the best way we see fit. The challenges of online learning required us to rethink the materials we presented and the manner by which we hoped that the lessons be delivered considering the constraints of teachers and students working and learning at home. This module was the result of all those considerations. To paraphrase a popular adage, it surely “takes a village” to develop a learning material that encompasses hundreds of years of Philippine history, society, culture, and politics and that is well suited and adaptable to flexible learning modalities. Such was a gargantuan task that would not have been possible without those who helped and inspired us along the way. We thank all the tertiary educators we met from all over the country during our General Education Curriculum (GEC) seminars from 2017 to 2019. As we strived to assist them with techniques in teaching a new history course, they also helped us with their invaluable insights on additional content that would best suit their needs. This module reflects all the recommended features based on that feedback. This module also benefited from the guidance and assistance of our friends and colleagues in the academe, namely: Kristyl Obispado, Ros Costelo, and Kerby Alvarez of the University of the Philippines (U.P.) Diliman; Janet Reguindin of the Ateneo de Manila University; Eugene Raymond Crudo and Herald lan Guiwa of U.P. Los Bafios; Alvin Campomanes of U.P. Manila; Aaron Abel Mallari of Ghent University; Joselito Ebro ur. of the International School of Myanmar; and Fernan Talamayan of the National Chiao Tung University. Their valuable assistance, comments, and suggestions helped us strengthen the module's fundamental structure and instructional design. We are also grateful for the support of REX Book Store, Inc., particularly the team behind the New GEC Series, led by Greg Pawilen of U.P. Los Bafios. « We also thank our respective families for the unconditional support throughout the writing of this module.We are aware that despite our best efforts, there might be some undetecteg errorsin this module. These errors are ours alone. Ultimately, the greatest inspirations for this module are the youth and the nation: Para sa Bata, Para sa Bayan. John Lee Candelaria, Veronica C. Alporha, Ayshia F. Kuntingieane Wea Oo ae pa aa Ts Kepug ay PAR EC ulin f, PREFACE in ince be: me basic education system of the Philippines have resulted in A ied Fi Of the K to 12 program, a much-needed development since the Philippines has been the last country in Asia with a 10-year pre-university cycle. Globally, the accepted span of basic education is 12 years, and it is recognized as the standard for students and professionals. With the lengthening of basic education, there is a need for higher education institutions to respond with the same enthusiasm in reforming their respective course offerings and programs. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) approved the New General Education (GE) Program, which is aimed at restructuring the old GE program in higher education institutions to respond to the challenges of . the times. The General Education Curriculum (GEC) is geared toward the holistic development of the person in overlapping realms of the individual, the Filipino community, and the global community. Itis in these realities that the General Education course “Readings in Philippine History” is situated, with the course description “Philippine history viewed from the lens of selected primary sources in different periods, analysis, and interpretations.” The focus of the course is to develop historical thinking skills connected to context and content analysis, applying both analytical strategies in themes and topics across the Philippine past. Primary sources will be the ultimate bridge between the past and the present, allowing spaces for students to simply not repeat facts about the past but to gain knowledge and skills relevant in proposing solutions to the problems of today. The use of primary sources in studying the past connects the history learner to the text producers themselves, allowing for a richer experience of understanding and appreciation. However, the use of primary sources for those who lack sufficient training and knowledge could also be problematic and may even be a source of misunderstanding and alienation to the historical record. This module is crafted to provide a strategy on how to study Philippine history through primary sources, in hopes that the teacher and the student would have the best opportunity to learn and study about the past while taking great care in watching the steps they take in their attempt to utilize primary sources in history. Philippine history, traditionally taken by first-year high school lier grade levels. This change makes teaching the tertiary level a more daunting task: students Unfortunately, students, was demoted to earl Readings in Philippine History atand teachers alike will have to deal with at least a six-year gap from the last time the students studied Philippine history. This module is designed with this consideration in mind. This module is a result of the authors’ consultation with history instructors throughout the country through the support of REX Book Store, Inc.'s GEC Workshops. From 2017 to 2019, we met with hundreds of tertiary educators all over the Philippines, from Baguio in the North to Davao in the South, who provided us with invaluable insights to improve the content of this module. We also revisited CHED Memorandum Order No. 20, series of 2013, to recontextualize the aims of the course and juxtapose them to the new GEC. We believe that in its current iteration, A Course Module for Readings in Philippine History provides the maximum content that a General Education module could hold. This module is divided into five units, organized as follows: Unit I: Introduction to Historyis a general appraisal of history as a discipline and as anarrative. The unit aims to introduce the students to history as a theoretical field, as well as discuss the historiographical method of the evaluation of primary sources. This unit also includes an additional discussion on Philippine historiography, which allows students to understand the development of methodologies and perspectives in the study and writing of Philippine history. Unit I: Analyzing Primary Sources in Philippine History talks about the methods of analysis in historical research, using primary sources across periods of Philippine history as exemplars of analyses. This unit includes mandatory and recommended primary sources to ensure that historical periods have representative texis, presented and arranged chronologically so that students do not lose sight of the integral historical skill of chronological understanding. Teachers and students alike are given the leeway to choose which representative primary sources they could focus on during classroom discussions while keeping up with the standards set by CHED’s Readings in Philippine History syllabus. Unit Ill: Problems in Interpreting Philippine History attempts to dissect the issues surrounding historical interpretation. While the CHED syllabus focused on multiple interpretations of history, this module includes other important problems in historical interpretation such as multiperspectivity, representation, illegitimate historical revisionism, and critical perspectives, among others. The cases were also expanded, from the original four to 15, to provide ample room for teachers and students to explore other important cases where the problems of historical interpretation are apparent and relevant to the way we deal with information today. Unit IV: Issues in Philippine History is centered on the attempt to understand current issues and concerns today using the lens of history, in recognition of the fact that the problems of society today could well be addressed by looking at the roots of the problems. The CHED-mandated topics on Philippine Constitution,agrarian reform, and taxation are accompanied by other topics that span social, political, economic Cultural, and environmental issues. This expansion responds to the CHED syllabus’ instruction to include relevant issues in Philippine society that straddle historical periods and are better understood when viewed with a historical lens. Unit V: Doing History is an attempt to guide the students in the historical thinking skills and research methods they will have to be familiar with the process of completing the course. The unit recognizes that students are digital natives. Thus, it is integral that teaching modalities adapt according to available digital tools and platforms. To this end, accessible online repositories of primary sources and virtual museums and libraries were identified in this unit. A lesson on analyzing historical art and film was also included. This module is also designed to respond to the “new normal” of education, considering the forced migration to online learning platforms due to the current challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Online references and learning resources such as YouTube videos are identified in hopes that teachers and students use these to supplement and enliven learning and instruction. Note to Teachers Teaching Readings in Philippine History is a challenge: different way of learning history, as we focus more on historical thinking skills than content. Aside from the challenge of teaching the course, the students will also be coming from a different context, and their knowledge of Philippine history may Not be as‘fresh, coming from a highly specialized senior high school curriculum that does not include Philippine history. These challenges are not insurmountable, and through this module, we hope that teaching Readings in Philippine History will encourage you to reassess your own knowledge of our nation’s past and respond to the challenge of teaching it in the present. Note to Students For the students, as with any course, Readings in Philippine History requires ample preparation and the right mindset. The course hopes to impart skills that are relevant in our daily lives. While the digital turn has made the delivery of information fast yet fleeting, there is still wisdom and benefit in putting in the hard work of reading, writing, and critical analysis and thinking. These are the same skills necessary for success in your respective fields of study and are practically non-negotiable in leading a productive life. We hope that this module encourages you to look at Philippine history in a different light, one where we, as individuals, are not merely passive observers but active participants in analyzing, interpreting, and ultimately, doing history. xiert caer eee Unit Objectives By the end of this unit, the students will be able to: . understand the meaning of history as an academic discipline; + identify the underlying philosophy and methodology of the field; apply the knowledge in historical methods and philosophy in assessing and analyzing existing historical narratives: + examine and evaluate the value of historical evidence and sources critically; and appraise the importance of history in the social and national life of the Philippines. Unit Introduction To appreciate the study of Philippine history, students must acquaint themselves and understand the meaning of history. This introductory unit will reintroduce students to history as something more than the study of the past. In Lesson 1, we will talk about the meaning of history across different periods and societies. We will look at how the definition, nature, and characteristics of history varied according to the context and to the purposes that it served. In Lesson 2, we will discuss the historian as the primarily responsible for the production of historical knowledge. Here, we will explain the tasks of historians, their relationship to historical sources and evidence, and the influence of their context on their work. In the next lesson, we are going to look at historical sources. We will differentiate between primary and secondary sources and study the use and importance of each one. We are also going to look at the methods of criticism of historical documents. The final lesson zooms in on the history of Philippine History. Here, we will discuss how kasaysayan and Philippine history changed at different junctures. Instead of mindlessly memorizing facts and events, students of history at the tertiary level must employ more in-depth historical analyses of historical texts to have a more in-depth and critical view of historical lessons. By the end of this unit, students ought to be ready to take on different historical topics and issues contained in this course.LESSON 1 eee Meaning of History Lesson Objectives By the end of this lesson, the students will be able to: . define history and trace its development as a field of study; + examine the issues surrounding the historical discipline; and + evaluate the importance and function of history. Key Concepts Positivism. The philosophy that a particular knowledge can only be true if it can be observed in a sensorial manner. a Historiography. The study of history as a historical discipline. Historicism. The belief that history should be studied only for its own sake. Lesson Introduction In this lesson, we are going to discuss the definition of history and how it developed into the modern discipline that we know and study today. We will discuss how historical methods and evidence or historical sources have been employed in different manners at different historical periods. Moreover, specific questions and issues on the uses, values, and perspectives of history are tackled. Suffice it to say that this lesson is a brief overview of the History of History. By the end of this lesson, students are expected to have a deeper understanding and appreciation of history as a field of study. Definition and Subject Matter History has always been known as the study of the past. Students of general education often dread the subject for its notoriety in requiring students to memorize dates, places, names, and events from distant eras. This low appreciation of the discipline may be rooted in the shallow understanding of history's relevance to their lives and their respective contexts. While the popular definition of history as the study of the past is not wrong, it does not give justice to the complexity of the subject and its importance to human civilization. History was derived from the Greek word historia, which means knowledge acquired through inquiry or investigation. History as a discipline has existed for around 2,400 years and is as old as mathematics and philosophy. This term was then adopted to classical Latin, where it acquired a new definition. Historia became 2 6 COURSE MODUL OH READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORYknown as the account of the past of a person or a group of people through written documents and historical evidence, History can refer to two things. First, history relates to everything that had happened in the past. Second, history also refers to a kind of research or inquiry. The second meaning is emphasized in this module. History is a discipline or a field of study and investigation that is primarily concerned with human activities done in the past. This meaning can be broken down into three dimensions. First is history's focus on human activities. This focus makes it different from, say, theology, because theology is concerned with the divine and not with human beings. History is also different from myths or legends because these pieces of _ literature are concerned not with human activities but the lives and undertakings of mythical creatures like deities and supernatural entities. Before the rise. ‘of the Ancient Greek civilization, older civilizations like the early Mesopotamian and Sumerian civilizations did not have a notion of history as a record of human activities. Instead, their history takes the form of theocratic history. Historians call this kind of history quasi-history because while these stories tell us of their society's past, they were concerned with the affairs of nonhuman entities like deities and mythical heroes and heroines. It follows that these narratives are not records of facts. They are just stories told and passed ina particular society from one generation to the next, which may serve various purposes like rituals and traditional ceremonies. They were intended neither to answer hitherto unanswered questions nor to discover previously undiscovered knowledge. This discussion leads us to the second aspect of the definition of history: history as an inquiry. History, as a field of inquiry, generally falls in the sciences, particularly to the social sciences. As in other scientific disciplines, history seeks to answer questions. It alms to find out and make sense of what is previously unknown. The quest for these answers should be done through a systematic and methodical collection of data and evidence, which in turn would be objectively interpreted by the historian to arrive at rational findings and conclusions. Finally, history is concerned with the past. This characteristic makes history different from other social science disciplines, which are more concerned with the present, such as political science, economics, and sociology. These disciplines, despite their usual references to historical studies, are oriented in making sense of the society at present and, in some instances, prescribing answers or solutions to pressing issues and problems of today. Meanwhile, history's primary object of study is the past. Historians seek to explain past events and processes against a particular historical background or context. Contrary to the impression that history is all about listing down events in the past in a chronological manner or identifying key figures and personalities in specific periods, this discipline Is more concerned with answering the question of why. UNIT| INTRODUCTION TOHISTORY 3al executed? Why dig Ferdinand Marcos it seeks to explain Why did a particular event take place? Why was Jose Riz Japan invade the Philippines during World War !I? Why was overthrown in 1986? History is storytelling, but more importantly, and answer questions about the past. However, similar to other fields, the historical disciplit of its nature, significance, and purpose. As mentioned meaning of history is a product of the discipline’s evolution acros the time of Ancient Greek civilization that history became concerned with human activities. Recording the past through historical sources was pioneered by Ancient Greek historian Herodotus. He is recognized as the Father of History because he was the one who established History as a science. Herodotus’ purpose in writing his work Histories was to describe the deeds of men in the past for posterity or future use. His quest for knowledge of the past was not only about retelling past human activities, but also about finding out and explaining the reasons behind such deeds. His successor was Thucydides, another Greek historian whose Magnum opus was the History of the Peloponnesian War. If Herodotus was proclaimed as the Father of History, Thucydides was known as the Father of Scientific History. While Herodotus was the first one who approached recording the past with a humanistic focus, it was Thucydides who first highlighted the importance of the systematic and impartial collection of evidence as an essential prerequisite in writing history. For Thucydides, the only reliable sources of history were testimonies of eyewitnesses. In his History of the Peloponnesian War, his method was what modern historians would call oral history. One noteworthy similarity between ancient Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides was their focus on the history of limited geographic space and of a recent historical period, i.e., a period that is within living memory. Consequently, their idea of history was limited to the history of a particular society in a specific period. For ancient Greek historians, the remote past is unknowable. This idea changed as the Greek civilization expanded and developed. Once they developed notions that the world goes far beyond Greek society and that other societies have their respective pasts, they realized that history is vast and cannot be captured in the memory of a single generation. Because of this, they would develop a new historical method that is not limited to collecting eyewitness testimonies. They would learn to study the remote past through a compilation of various works and records kept by different people at different places and times. The importance that this new method would place in records, specifically in written records, would usher in the period of tedious and meticulous record-keeping that would start in the subsequent medieval period. The voluminous written accounts produced and kept by different institutions may be the most plausible explanation on why modern history gives primacy to written documents over ather kinds of historical sources like artifacts, oral tradition, visual arts, and architecture, among others. (Historical sources would be further elaborated in Lessoh 3.) ine has changed in terms previously, the present s time. It is during 4 A.COURSE MODULE FOR READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORYWith the accumulation of historical records and the gradual expansion of the Western civilization caused by the rise of powerful empires like the Roman Empire, World History would emerge. It would serve as the record of many different civilizations, nations, and societies. Such would be written to serve various purposes and would be defined in diferent ways. Up until the present, the purpose, subject matter, and nature of the discipline are still debated among historians and students of history. Activity: Meaning of History through Time. In groups of five, create a table or diagram that would show how the definition, characteristic, and use of history changed from the Ancient to the Modern Period. Issues and Questions Since the earliest historical works that followed Herodotus and Thucydides were derived from written sources, then it is quite expected that the sectors whose past will figure in history are those who were in the higher level of the social ladder that included monarchs, military heroes, clergymen, scholars, nobilities, and saints. The topics written about were also the ones that were perceived to be of historical importance and, thus, were reflected on official records. These topics include revolutions, wars, conquests, and crusades. These traditional scope and subjects of historical writing would give rise to different questions and issues on the discipline. By the nineteenth century, @ particular school of thought would emerge and dominate various scientific disciplines for many generations: positivism. Positivism is an essential philosophy that would serve as a vital anchor of the scientific method. It asserts that real knowledge lies in the actual observation of facts. Meaning, for an idea to be real, it must be verified with sensory experience. It should be observable by the senses and be the subject of experimentation. In history, positivism created the mantra of “no document, no history.” It means that, unless the written record can support a specific historical event, then it cannot be considered as a historical fact. The rise of positivist history contributed to the further development of history as a scientific field. However, because history is a unique field of inquiry, positivism also has a set of limitations. Unlike other scientific fields like biology, physics, and chemistry, historical truth is not something that can be experimented on in science laboratories. The past is not something that can be contained in test tubes and Petri dishes, observed, and from such sensorial observation, interpreted. In simpler terms, no document can capture entire historical truths. Moreover, the preference for written sources potentially privileges the sectors Mentioned earlier because their lives were reflected in voluminous sources. Nobilities, monarchs, the elite, and even the middle class would have their birth, education, marriage, and death as matters of government and historical record. UNITI INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY 5did not give much thought if we hold “no document, no ies who were not reflected kers, the urban poor, and But what of peasant families or indigenous groups who about being registered to government records? Indeed, i history” as true, do we also accept that people and societi in written sources and documents, such as peasants, wor indigenous peoples, do not have history? This loophole was recognized by historians who started using other kinds of historical sources. which may not be in written format but were Just as valid, A few of these examples are oral traditions in the forms of epics and songs, artifacts, architecture, and memory. History, thus, became more inclusive and started collaborating with other disciplines as its auxiliary disciplines. With the aid of archaeologists, historians can use artifacts from a bygone era to study ancient civilizations that were formerly ignored in history because of the lack of documents. Linguists can also help trace historical evolutions, past connections among different groups, and the flow of cultural influence by studying languages and the way that they changed and developed. Even scientists like biologists and geneticists can help with the study of the past by analyzing genetic and DNA patterns of human societies. ‘These data can explain how past societies interacted, how they migrated from ‘one location to another, and so on. With these advances, history is a continuously developing discipline that is shaped by productive debates and discussions on its nature, method, and purpose. Indeed, history as a discipline has already turned into a complex and dynamic inquiry. This dynamism inevitably produced various perspectives on the discipline regarding different questions like: What is history? Why study history? And for whom should history be? These questions can be answered by historiography. In simple terms, historiography is the history of history. History and historiography should not be confused with one another. The former's object of study is the past, the events that happened in the past, and the causes of such events. The latter's object of study, on the other hand, is history itself. Examples of historiographical questions are: How was a specific historical text written? Who wrote it? What was the context of its publication? What was the particular historical method employed? What were the sources used? and so on. Thus, historiography lets students of history have a better and deeper understanding of the past. They do not only get to learn historical facts, but they are also provided with an understanding of the facts’ and the historian’s contexts. The methods employed by the historian and the theory and perspective which guided him are also analyzed. Historiography is essential for anyone who studies history because it teaches students to be critical with history lessons presented to them. As discussed previously, history's nature and meaning have changed over long periods. Corollary to this, history's purpose and uses have also changed from one era to another. Initially, history was recorded for posterity. Herodotus and other historians of the ancient world wrote history so that people can have something to look back on as reference should they be faced with similar challenges in the present MOUULE FOR READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORYand the future. In other words, by recording the past, the historian creates a guide for the following generations. In doing so, Herodotus and Thucydides envisioned that the future generation, equipped with the lessons of past human actions, would be more able and empowered to control their destiny. In the medieval period, when Christianity and the Church became the most powerful institutions, 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. In this sense, history was no longer written to enable man to control his destiny because God already predetermined his destiny. instead, history became a crucial part of the endeavor to discover and expound on this divine plan. As history developed as a scientific discipline, due in part to the rise of the positivist philosophy, professional historians who made a career out of history's academic study argued that studying history should not have any other purpose but for its own sake. This intellectual movement is referred to as historicism. In their view, assigning a pragmatic reason for the study of the past, like political training and historical analyses of social problems, renders a sense of partiality or bias ‘on what should be historically studied and how. Leopold von Ranke, the leading positivist historian of the nineteenth century, was the primary advocate of this idea. He argued that the task of the historian is neither to guard certain values nor to judge certain pasts. Instead, the task of the historian should be to bring the past back to life. Ranke popularly declared that the aim of history is “merely to show how things actually were.” Insisting on the social relevance of history obscures a faithful and complete reimagination of the past because it tends to be viewed in light of the recent problems. However, this view disregards the fact that any historical writing, albeit highlighting certain aspects of the past, would always be influenced by the context of the historian who is writing from the present. Recent developments in the historical discipline, such as the emergence of subdisciplines like Women’s History, Environmental History, Labor History, and Urban History, were products of present issues that demanded a thorough and scientific explanation of historical processes that led us to the current situations. As the Italian historian Benedetto Croce said, “All History is contemporary History.” Moreover, faithfulness to the past and social relevance are not necessarily incompatible with one another. A historian can respond to present issues without compromising academic rigor, impartiality, and objectivity. Aside from this, whether the historian refuses to engage in present relevance or not, history can always be used and distorted to serve different agendas. In the relatively recent past, states and governments used history to unite a nation and to legitimize regimes by forging a sense of collective identity through the manufacture of social memory. This use of history was especially true for nations who prescribe official versions of their history, such as North Korea, Nazi Germany UNIT INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY 7ieir regimes, distorteg licies and to escape istorians depicted during the war period, and Thailand. Aside from legitimizing th notions of the past have also been used to justify atrocious po! historical accountability for past wrongdoings. When American hi: Se the Filipino people as uncivilized in their publications, they intended to justify their colonization of the islands. They wanted colonization to appear not as a means of undermining the freedom of the Filipino people who recently gained independence from Spain but as a civilizing mission to fulfil what they call the ‘white man’s burden,” At present. the family and loyalists of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos have been systematically revising and changing history to acquit Marcos of his sins in the past and to falsely paint his corrupt and brutal regime as @ Golden Age of the Philippines. In these instances, isn't it the duty of the historian to rescue the past from entities who intend to use it to escape accountability, justify oppression, and spread deceit? The historian’s mission of preserving and resurrecting the past, as argued by historicists, is always attached to his duty to respond to the issues of the present. If history should not be studied only for the sake of studying the past, what other purposes should it then serve? One answer is that history can provide us with multiple ways to view, interpret, and respond to a particular problem. History reminds us that there can be a range of different options that have manifested in the Past. which we can use for present issues. History's utility has always been referred to as “learning from the mistakes of the past,” as if everything that has happened in the past was a mistake. This reference is not necessarily accurate. History can also be an “inventory of alternatives.” It is also a repository of good ideas. Aside from this. the ancient Greek notion that history can provide humanity with lessons from the past to have better control of their destiny is also true. History can help us control not just our future, but also our present situation. Finally, history helps humanity to acquire a sense of self-knowledge. As British historian R. G. Collingwood elegantly put it, “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. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.” Activity: Historical Birthday. The class will be divided into groups with three to five members each. Students who have birthdates closest to one another will belong to the same group. For example, students who. celebrate their birthdays in January will belong to one group. Students will do a quick Internet search of events that happened on the date of their birth. The group will then create a timeline of their birthdays with the corresponding historical events, and present the timeline in class. (f MOLULE Ot READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORYLesson Summary . History is the study of human activities in the past. This definition makes history a unique discipline. . The meaning and characteristics of history changed from the ancient period to the present. These changes were dependent on the purposes that history served. History is a scientific discipline that relies on different sources. . Several issues revolve around the meaning and function of history as a discipline. These issues relate to different aspects of the discipline, such as meaning, method, and use. References Collingwood, R. G. (2005). The Idea of History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tosh, J. (2002). The Pursuit of History: Aims, methods and new directions in the study of modern history. London: Pearson Education. Suggested Online Resources Green, J. (2020). What History Was, ls, and Wil Be: Crash Course European History #50. [YouTube Video}. Retrieved 4 February 2021 from: http://bit.\y/RdgsPHA1 PODKAS. (2020). Why do we study History? [Podcast]. Retrieved 4 February 2021 from: http://bit-ly/RdgsPHA2 Lesson Assessment Short-response questions. Based on the discussions in this lesson, answer the following questions. Limit your answers to one to three sentences. 4. What are the three dimensions of history? Briefly explain each one. 2. Whatis positivism, and how is it applied in history? 3. _ Enumerate some uses and importance of history. UNITI INTRODUCTION TOHISTORYLESSON 2 History and the Historian Lesson Objectives By the end of this lesson, the students will be able to: + examine the historian’s role in the production of historical knowledge; + consider the challenges that confront historians in the conduct of their job; + differentiate history as a profession vis-a-vis other meanings of history; and + identity how historical interpretation is affected by factors like bias and subjectivity. Key Concepts Historian. Primary responsible for the production of historical knowledge through continuous research and rethinking of history. Historical interpretation. Making sense of given primary sources and historical documents through content and contextual analyses. Bias/subjectivity. A disposition brought together by one’s context that influences a historian’s historical interest and selection of sources and methodology. Lesson Introduction In this lesson, we will discuss the role and the task of the historian as primarily responsible for the production of historical knowledge. Specific questions will be addressed: Who qualifies as a historian? What is the relationship between the historian and historical facts? How can a historian be objective in dealing with historical sources and evidence? Is it possible for the historian to be totally objective in interpreting historical evidence and weaving historical narrative? Who Qualifies as a Historian? For most people, history is something that is taught and studied in schools; thus, teachers are commonly regarded as “experts” of history. It may come as a surprise that some people actually take history as a full-time and serious profession. The historian is an obscure and strange image for those who did not have the chance to have a closer study of history. Nevertheless, all of the historical knowledge that we study and utilize at present are products of meticulous research done by historians who dedicated their intellect and skills in writing history. But what makes someone a historian? Can someone who has a fascination about the past and has done their share of reading some historical texts be considered 10 /. COURSE MODULE FOR READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORYone? Can an} 1 : as lyone who has experienced historical education and has done some Pistoia thinking become a historian? As mentioned in the previous lesson, history 3 : : ee 7 as an established academic discipline since the nineteenth century. is gi Was accompanied by the professionalization of the discipline and with more people taking up the ‘Study of history as a full-time career. A historian is someone who " Continuously pursues historical knowledge. History, as the study of the past base i d on existing pieces of historical evidence, is a dynamic and continually. evolving discipline. Thus, historians are expected to keep up with changes and developments in historical knowledge in light of new evidence. What then is the difference between a historian and a student of history? On the ‘one hand, the student of history gains historical knowledge based on what history teachers and history books say. On the other hand, the historian produces historical knowledge through the continuous and constant pursuit of historical knowledge by answering questions about the past through gathering and interpreting historical evidence. While students and enthusiasts of history revel in amazement about our fascinating past, the historian is occupied with asking relevant historical questions and answering them through rigorous historical perspective and method to fulfill the uses of history discussed in Lesson 1. Activity: Know Your Historian. Choose a Filipino historian, Read about their life and works. Analyze how their context or background influenced the way they wrote history. Write a short essay about the historian and prepare to share it in class. Tasks of Historians We acquire historical knowledge through historical sources. Some would say that it is impossible to come up with a complete and exact historical truth because we only have access to representations of the past through sources that survived through time. Historical sources cannot speak for themselves. Historians are Needed to examine and interpret them through the skills they acquired in training for historical research and methodology. It is the historian’s task to convert historical sources to historical knowledge. This task is not easy. After all, the past is a vast subject to study. History accumulates every day. More than the difficulty of interpreting historical sources, it is also the historian’s task to determine what is historical. The historical fact is different from a fact from the past. A fact from the past is anything that happened in the past. Say, for example, it is a fact of the past that you had a newborn niece the other day, or that you spent your last week reading a book, or that you used to take a school bus going to your elementary school. But not everything that happened in the past, whether or not it is true, counts as a historical fact. This Notion leads.us to the question: what then counts as a historical fact? British UNIT1 INTRODUCTION TOHISTORY 14historian Edward Hallett Carr states that a historical fact is something, that is determined by the historian. For example, a diary of a schoolgi! wno ver vs 1g the American period in the Philippines is just something kept in an oj di "idee cabinet until historians gets their hands on it a hundred years later and decidss to use it to write a history of student life in the Philippines under the U.S. colonial education system The historian decides what part of the past makes it to the canon of history. But this leads us to even more complicated questions like, how does a historian determine what part of the past can be included in the historical narrative? More importantly, where do we source historical questions that push historians ta pursue historical facts? More often than not, historical questions are brought about by issues at present that demand historical explanation. Traditionally, historians are interested in political history because they perceived that political events like war, revolutions, and regimes are the only part of the past that has implications in the present. However, when certain conditions led to the rise of the call for gender equality or economic equality, history started giving birth to subdisciplines like women’s history and social history. This discussion leads us to an assertion that historians and the historical knowledge that they produce have significantly influenced their respective contexts. The historian’s interests and life’s work are inevitably influenced by various factors ‘such as nationality, political ideology, religion, educational background, and overall experiences. These reasons make us understand why most historians specializing in women’s history are women, and local histories are written by historians who were born and raised in those particular localities. Activity: Think, Pair, Share. Based on the discussion of the tasks of the historian, think about the three most important attributes that you think a historian should have. Share it with a partner and prepare to discuss it in class. The Objectivity of the Historian If historians are the ones who determine which parts of the past are to include in historical knowledge, and their respective contexts influence historians’ ways of selecting facts and interpreting evidence, is it then possible to come uj with absolute historical truth? Is history an objective discipline? If it is not, tet stl worthwhile to study history? These questions have haunted historians for 1 generations. Indeed, an exact and accurate account of the Past is impossib| forthe straightforward reason that we cannot go back to the past. We carmot arene tre past directly as our subject matter. Historians only get to access a r¢ access the the past through historical sources and evidence, ‘presentation of 12 COURSE MODULE FOR READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORYBesides seeking historical fa icts and evi is 's je interpret these facts, evidence, it is also the historian’s job to M “Facts cannot speak for themselves.” It is the historian’s job to give meaning to these facts and organize them into a timeline, establish causes, and write history. Meanwhile, the historian isnota blank paper who mechanically interprets and analyzes present historical facts. Similar to how historians’ contexts lead them to certain interests and make them ask particular questions, their interpretation of the historical fact is also affected by their backgrounds and circumstances. Their subjectivity will inevitably influence the process of their historical research and their reading. If subjectivities always play a role in the way historians produce history, can history still be considered an academic and scientific inquiry? Historical research requires rigor. Even though historians cannot ascertain absolute objectivity, the study of history remains scientific because of the rigor of research and methodology that historians employ. Historical methodology consists of certain techniques and rules that historians follow to properly collect and select sources and historical evidence. Certain rules apply in cases of conflicting accounts in different sources and on how to properly treat eyewitness accounts and oral sources as valid historical evidence. , In doing so, the historians’ claims and arguments, while may be influenced by their inclinations, can still be validated by using reliable evidence and by employing a rigorous and meticulous historical methodology. For example, if a historian chooses to use an oral account as primary data in studying the ethnic history of the Iugaos in the Cordilleras during the American Occupation, it is necessary to validate the informant's claims by comparing and corroborating them with written sources. Therefore, while bias is inevitable, historians can balance this by relying on legitimate historical evidence that backs up their claim. In this sense, historians need not let their bias blind their judgment. Bias is only acceptable if they paid attention to precision and rigor as a researcher. Moreover, because history is a professional academic discipline, historians are always subjected to scrutiny by their peers. Indeed, a historical claim made by one historian would not be recognized as part of historical knowledge unless other historians accepted it. This practice is similar to how studies done by scientists are only deemed legitimate if it has undergone evaluation by their peers. Academic disciplines have their ways of ensuring that the integrity of their field is maintained. Historians, therefore, are central to the creation of historical knowledge. They ask questions that lead them to the pursuit of historical research. They collect and select the facts and evidence that are significant for historical research. They interpret facts through meticulous investigation and weave them into a coherent narrative. Ultimately, historians make history. Edward Hallett Carr is correct in saying that “[History] is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts, an unending dialogue between the present and the past.” UNITI INTRODUCTION TOHISTORY 13