Module 2: Historical Sources

Definition of History
 derived from the Greek noun ἱστορία
ἱστορία (historia) = learning; inquiry

 “the past of mankind”

 Geschichte = the German word for

history
Geschehen = to happen

- Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History

History - chronological record of significant
events, the study of past events.

-Webster’s Vest Pocket Dictionary(Springfield:

Merriam Webster, Inc., Publishers), p. 149
KASAYSAYAN IN THE LANGUAGE AND
PERSPECTIVE OF FILIPINO

KASAYSAYAN
• saysay (narrative or salaysay)
• saysay (relevance, importance)
• If relevant, for whom?
• Zeus Salazar definition: Salaysay na may
saysay para sa sinasalaysayang grupo ng tao
(Relevant stories/narrative of the people).
 Kasaysayan
• History is a “narrative that can be written,
visual or oral or a combination of the three
about past events that has meaning to a
certain group of people in a given time and
place” (Ocampo, A., 2011)
 History in Saysay

• Past – Hindsight
• Future – Foresight
• Present – synergy to find the insight
“If you talk to a man in a language he
understands, that goes to his head. If
you talk to him in his language, that
goes to his heart.”

-Nelson Mandela
 History as Reconstruction
• the historian is many times removed from the
events under investigation

• historians rely on surviving records

History Defined by E.H. Carr
• the inquiry conducted by the historian
and the series of past events into which
he inquires
• is the continuous process of interaction
between the historian and his facts, an
unending dialogue between the present
and the past
• History means interpretation
• History is what the historian makes
• History is the re-enactment in the historian's
mind of the thought whose history he is
studying. -Collingwood

• History is the historian's experience.

-Oakeshott

• History is “a selective system” not only of

cognitive, but of causal, orientations to
reality. -Parsons
• “Only a part of what was observed in the
past was remembered by those who
observed it; only a part of what was
remembered was recorded; only a part of
what was recorded has survived; only a
part of what has survived has come to the
historian’s attention; only a part of what
has come to their attention is credible;
only a part of what is credible has been
grasped, and only a part of what has been
grasped can be expounded or narrated by
the historian.”
- Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History
 Historians have to verify sources, to
date them, locate their place of origin
and identify their intended functions

Historical Method
 Historical Method - the
process of critically
examining and analyzing
the records and survivals of
the past
Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History
“Each generation of historians
develops its own perspectives, and
that our understanding of the past is
constantly reshaped by the historian
and the world he or she inhabits”
-Howell & Prevenier
 What are Sources?
• “The historian however has to use many materials that are not in
books. Where these are archeological, epigraphical or numismatic
materials, he has to depend largely on museums. Where there are
official records, he may have to search for them in archives,
courthouses, government libraries. Etc. where there are private
papers not available in official collections, he may have to hunt
among the papers of business houses, the muniment rooms of
ancient castles, the prized possessions of autograph colectors, the
recordsof parish churchs etc. Having some subject in mind with
more or less definite delimitation of the persons, areas, times and
functions (example diplomatic, economic, political or other
occupational aspects) involved he looks for materials that may
have been bearing upon those persons in that area at the time they
function in that fashion. The more precise his delimitation of
persons, area, time and finction, the more relevant his sources are
likely to be” (Gottschalk , Understanding History, 1950).
 Historical Sources
 These are objects (material culture) from
the past or testimonies concerning the past
on which historians depend in order to
create their own depiction of that past.
- Howell and Prevenier, From Reliable Sources an
Introduction to Historical Method

 Tangible remains of the past

- Anthony Brundage, Going to Sources
Historical Sources
 materials used for the writing of
history.
They are classified into two:
1. Primary Sources
2. Secondary Sources
Another type of classification are:
1. written and non-written,
2. published or unpublished,
3. textual, oral or visual sources
What are Primary Sources?
Testimony of an eyewitness

A primary source must have been

produced by a contemporary of
the event it narrates
-Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History
 Primary Sources
• 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 eyewitnesses accounts, diaries,
letters, legal documents, official documents
(government and private) and even
photographs.
 materials produced by people or
groups directly involved in the event or
topic being studied.
they are either participants or
witnesses.
these sources range from eyewitness
accounts, diaries, letters, legal
documents, and official documents
(government or private) and even
photographs
 Examples of 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
• 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
• Published or unpublished primary documents,
eyewitness accounts and other written sources
Four Main Categories of Primary Sources

1. Written sources
2. Images
3. Artifacts
4. Oral testimony
Written Sources

1. Published materials
 Books, magazines, journals,
 Travelogue
 transcription of speech

2. Manuscript [any handwritten or typed

record that has not been printed]
 Archival materials
 Memoirs, diary
Non- written Sources
Oral history
Artifact
Ruins
Fossils
Art works
Videorecordings
Audiorecordings
What are Secondary Sources?

A secondary source interprets and

analyzes primary sources. These
sources are one or more steps removed
from the event.

Secondary sources may have

pictures, quotes or graphics of primary
sources in them.
- http://www.princeton.edu/~refdesk/primary2.html
 Secondary Sources
• Gottschalk describes secondary sources as
“the testimony of anyone who is not an
eyewitness – that is of one who was not
present at the event of which he tells”
Examples of secondary sources:

History textbook

Printed materials (serials,

periodicals which interprets
previous research)
“ The historian without his fact
is rootless and futile; the facts
without their historian are
dead and meaningless”

- E. H. Carr
 Point to Ponder

• History does not repeat

itself. We repeat history…