According to Stephen Behrendt (2008), a contextual analysis is “simply an analysis of a text (in

whatever medium, including multi-media) that helps us to assess that text within the context of its historical and
cultural setting, but also in terms of its textuality – or the qualities that characterize the text as a text”. It aims
to “combine features of formal analysis with features of cultural archeology or the systematic study of
social, political, economic, philosophical, religious, and aesthetic conditions that were (or can be assumed to
have been) in place at the time and place when the text was created. While this may sound complicated, it is
in reality deceptively simple: it means “situating” the text within the milieu of its times and assessing the roles
of author, readers (intended and actual), and “commentators” (critics, both professional and otherwise) in
the reception of the text”. To simply put, contextual analysis an evaluation of the time, place, and situation
when the primary source was written. It also includes the author’s background, authority on the subject
and perceptible intentions and its relevance and meaning to people and society today.

On the other hand, content analysis is a systematic evaluation of the primary source like in the form of a
text, painting, caricature, speech etc. in order to develop and present an argument based on understanding of
the evidence. To illustrate these concepts:

For this lesson, there will be five primary sources that we are going to analyse. Some analysis will be provided
and some will be done by you as students of history. Remember that one of the objectives of this chapter is to
develop your critical and analytical skills with exposure to primary sources. The primary sources that we are
going to analyze are as follows:

1. The First Voyage around the World by Antonio Pigafetta

2. Kartilya ng Katipunan by Emilio Jacinto
3. The Declaration of Philippine Independence as read by Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista
4. Political Carricature of the American Era by Alfred McCoy and Alfredo Roces
5. Corazon Aquino’s Speech before the Joint Session of US Congress

Analysis of the Primary Source

The First Voyage around the World by Antonio Pigafetta is a detailed description of the first world
circumnavigation as initiated by Ferdinand Magellan. Unfortunately, he died in the Philippines thus the title to
first circumnavigate the globe was given to Juan Sebastián Elcano , the aptain of the ship which was able to
return to Spain. This narrative serves as an essential source of our knowledge about Magellan and Elcano's
voyage. It is an important tool in understanding our history for it details the discovery of the Western route to
the Moluccas and the lives of the people (Stanley, 2003).

THE CONTEXT

Author’s Background
Who is Antonio Pigafetta? Antonio Pigafetta (ca. 1491-1531) was a well-known Italian scholar and explorer
from the Republic of Venice. He was a scribe or chronicler commissioned by the Spanish Crown to accompany
Ferdinand Magellan and document a voyage intended to expand the Spanish empire. He was from a noble
descent from a rich family in Venice. Perhaps his being a scholar of cartography and geography got him the job.
Interestingly, his account was a major reference to the events leading to Magellan’s arrival in the Philippines,
his encounter with local leaders, his death in the hands of Lapulapu’s forces in the so-called Battle of Mactan as
well as the departure of what was left from the fleet.

Situation/Condition of the Times

What prompted the Europeans to travel during the 16th Century? Perhaps you have ideas in mind. But I would
like us to remember the basics, the 3Gs – God, Gold, and Glory. These can be explained as follows:

God: Europe was dominated by the Holy Roman Empire whose goal was the domination of the Catholic Church
all over the world.
Gold: 16th Century economic system is MERCANTILISM, a system which measures the wealth of
kingdoms/empires based on accumulation of precious metals like gold and silver. They came to acquire new
lands and find these precious metals.
Glory: Spain wanted to search for new lands to acquire more wealth in order to be on top of all European
nations. Moreover, they also wanted to prove in Science that the earth is round and to control the source of
spices in the Far East. Spices during those times were considered scarce and prestige goods. When these things
are done, their name (or Spain) will be glorified.
THE CONTENT

In the First Voyage, Pigafetta had narrated what he actually saw and what was in his mind: “I grew up, in the
Marianas, hearing about this gulf. It is part of why travel writing can be so fraught for me now. On reaching
the
Marianas after nearly four months at sea with no new provisions, "The captain-general wished to stop at the
large island and get some fresh food, but he was unable to do so because the inhabitants of that island
entered the ships and stole whatever they could lay their hands on, in such a manner that we could not defend
ourselves” (Stanley, 2003). The sailors did not understand that this was custom, that for the islanders, property
was communal and visitors were expected to share what they had. As a result, Magellan and his starving crew
retaliated. They went ashore and burned, by Pigafetta's account, forty to fifty houses. They killed seven men.
Mutual astonishment at the new and the wondrous took a dark turn. Magellan then named the archipelago
Islas de los Ladrones, the Islands of Thieves. This name of the island lasted for three hundred years, long after
the islands were absorbed into the Spanish empire. But it was a surprise to see in Pigafetta's text that the
sailors moved to compassion. They seem to understand, in that moment of astonishment, that the islanders
are defenseless against the unknown. From the Marianas, the fleet moved on to the Philippines. They linger
there, exploring the land, exchanging gifts with the chiefs, observing the people. And I know what's coming for
the people; I know that we're seeing, through Pigafetta, the hush of a world just before it changes, wholly and
entirely (Essay Daily, 2013).

Meanwhile, Pigafetta in his travel writing showed how he was so amazed by many things and products such as
the coconuts and the bananas and the naked, beautiful people. It's happening even now in the text, as the
Filipino pilots are captured to direct the way to the Moluccas, the way to the spices. There is Pigafetta, roaming
and cataloging and recording, caught up in the first flush of a new world. This is what “great travel writing
gives
us: a way to wholly enter a moment, a feeling, a body during the past. We can be our forefathers, marveling at
the country, our country, transformed by its vast expanse”. Or we can be in the shoes of Pigafetta, on the deck
of the Trinidad, moved to write from shock and wonder. We can also be the women on a boat in the Marianas,
crying out of love for the dead (Essay Daily, 2013).

Scholars’ Comment on Pigafetta’s Account

Pigafetta’s journal served as the basis for his 1525 travelogue. According to scholar Theodore Cachey Jr., the
travelogue represented “the literary epitome of its genre and achieved an international reputation”. To him, the
First Voyage is an:

“Intent on marveling at what it encounters—and therein lies much of its appeal. It is a work that is
intent on wonder and astonishment. In travel writing, one often must recreate the first moment of
newness, that fresh sense of awe, on the page for the reader; Pigafetta does it again and again, by
reveling in odd and odder bits of detail. We watch Pigafetta wonder at trees in Borneo whose
leaves appear to walk around once shed, leaves that "have no blood, but if one touches them they
run away. I kept one of them for nine days in a box. When I opened the box, that leaf went round
and round it. I believe those leaves live on nothing but air.” (Pigafetta,76). We marvel, in the
Philippines, at sea snails capable of felling whales, by feeding on their hearts once ingested (48).
On a stop in Brazil, we see an infinite number of parrots, monkeys that look like lions, and "swine
that have their navels on their backs, and large birds with beaks like spoons and no tongues" (10)
(cited in Essay Daily, 2013).

However, there were perceived problems in the travel writing of Pigafetta. First is that, the travel writer has the
authority grounding from his or her own observation without considering the thoughts of others. Second is the
call for humility in confronting the unknown. Pigafetta, for example, had encountered new people. He tried to
earn his authority through a lot of details. Nevertheless, Pigafetta, attempted to reconstruct their world for us, as
to what they look like, where they live, what they eat, what they say. He gives us pages and pages of words,
from Patagonia, from Cebu, from Tidore. There is little humility, and one can hardly expect there to be so, not
early in Sixteenth century. A few decades after the Pope had divided the unchartered world between Spain and
Portugal. Certainly not on this expedition, where Magellan and his partners have been promised, in a contract
agreement with the Spanish monarchy, the titles of Lieutenants and Governors over the lands they discover, for
themselves and their heirs, in perpetuity plus an amount of money (Cachey, 2007).

Other authors also commented that Pigafetta’s account is remarkably ethnocentric thinking that European
culture is superior over the early Filipinos. For example, Pigafetta regarded indigenous belief systems and way
of life as inferior to that of Christianity and of the Europeans. Also, he emphasized too much on the
“nakedness” and “exotic” culture of the “natives” and stressed on the early Filipinos’ amazement and illiteracy
to European artillery and goods. But undeniably, the interest of Europeans for spices and gold is obvious in his
accounts. Of course, Pigafetta behaved in such way because he was Catholic and one of their objectives is to
spread Christianity to places they had reached. The eye for spices and gold was also clear because they also
came for those.

Nonetheless, Pigafetta’s accounts provided a first-hand information observation and general impression of the
“Far East” during the 16th Century.