READING IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

PRELIM REVIEWER

The English word of history is derived from the Greek noun istoia, meaning learning.

As per Aristotle, history meant a systematic account of a set of natural phenomena, whetehr or not
chronological.

The equivalent Latin word scientia (English, science) came to be used more regularly to designate
non-chronological systematic accounts of natural phenomena.

The word history was reserved usually for, accounts of phenomena (especially human affairs) in
chronological order.

By its most common definition, the word history now means, “the past of mankind."

Primary Sources

Primary sources are materials produced by people or groups directly involved in the event or topic
being studied. These people are either participants or eyewitnesses to the event. These sources
range from eyewitness accounts, diaries, letters, legal documents, official documents (government
or private), and even photographs.

Formally, there are eight examples of these primary sources

1. Photographs that may reflect social conditions of historical realities and everyday life

2. Old sketches and drawings that may indicate the conditions of life of societies in the past

3. Old maps that may reveal how space and geography were used to emphasize trade routes,
structural build-up etc.

4. Cartoons for political expression or propaganda

5. Material evidence of the prehistoric past like cave drawings, old syllabaries, and ancient writings

6. Statistical tables, graphs, and charts

7. Oral history or recordings by electronic means of accounts of eyewitnesses or participants; the

recordings are then transcribed and used for research.

8. Published and unpublished primary documents eyewitness accounts, and other written sources.

Secondary Sources

Gottschalk simply defines secondary sources as the “the testimony of anyone who is not an
eyewitness – that is one of who was not present at the event of which he tells”. These are books,
articles, and scholarly journals that had interpreted primary sources or had used them to discuss
certain subjects of history.