The Historian’s Tools

Presentation By Prof. Jet T. Castillo & Prof. Zk

Guevarra
Lecture by: Prof. Zk Guevarra
 Our TOOLS for working here in
SS032
•Contextual Analysis
•Content Analysis
•Comparative Analysis
Contextual Analysis
• Studying the
social, political,
politi
historical and cs
cultural
background of a Historical events
text to better
understand it. culture

etc 1800s
Ask the following questions:
• Who wrote the text? (author)
• What do we know about the author? (author’s
background)
• Who did he write this for (target audience)?
• Why did he write this? (motive)
• When and where was the text written? Describe the
prevailing conditions in that period of time and in that
place (political, cultural, social, background)?
Content Analysis
• Finding interesting and meaningful pieces of content in a text by
systematically reading it.
• The bounds of the analysis is the text itself. No supporting “outside”
source is used.
Count how many pages talked about a revolution

Count how many bad priests were mentioned

Was the main character successful based on his

accomplishments?
Content Analysis
• Involves reading in between the lines.
• Seeing patterns within the text.
• Figuring out what the author really intends to
convey
• Drawing out lessons from the text itself
Content Analysis
"María Clara did not have the small eyes of her father: like her mother she
had them large and black, beneath long lashes; gay and smiling when she
played, sad and soulful and pensive when she was not laughing.(1)
Since childhood her hair had an almost golden hue;(2)
her nose, of a correct profile, was neither sharp nor flat; (3)
her mouth reminded one of her mother's, small and perfect, with two
beautiful dimples on her cheeks. (4)
Her skin had the fine texture of an onion layer, the whiteness of
cotton, according to her enthusiastic relatives. (5)
They saw traces of Capitan Tiago's paternity in the small and well-
rounded ears of María Clara." (6)
Comparative Analysis
• Comparing 2 texts that talk about the same theme
or event.
Philippine society is
Philippine society is like this…….
like this…….
Comparative Analysis
• Put the two texts side-by-side
• Look for differences in what they say
• Look for commonalities in what they say
• List details that one text mentions, and the other
did not; and vice versa
Let’s review
•Contextual analysis is…
•Content analysis is…
•Comparative analysis is…
Now, let’s try doing them!
•The Tabon Man artifacts and accounts by
R.B. Fox and by W.H. Scott
The Tabon Man
Context
• 1962
• An American anthropologist working for the National
Museum of the Philippines, Robert Fox, discovered
bones in a cave in Palawan.
• There were many Tabon birds in the cave, thus it was
named Tabon Cave.
• The bones were sent to France for further scientific
study.
Context
Context
• It was confirmed that these bones were the oldest bones in
the Philippines, older than the time when Negritos were
believed to have arrived in the Philippines (Wave Migration
Theory by H.O. Beyer)
• The Wave Migration Theory was the prevailing “truth” about
Philippine Prehistory during that time. Because of this
discovery, Beyer’s Theory was debunked.
• For the next half-century, the Tabon Man was taught in
schools as the first inhabitants of the Philippines.
Context
Context
• In 2007, diggings in Callao Cave in Cagayan Valley in
Northern Luzon yielded a human foot bone.
• In 2010, it was confirmed that it was indeed a human foot
bone and its age was so much older than the Tabon Man.
Later, teeth were dug up.
• Thus, a new character, the Cagayan Man, is now considered
as the first inhabitant of the Philippines.
• In April 2019, the Cagayan Man was given a scientific name,
Homo luzonensis.
Activity
• You will be given a reading text written by Scott and
another one by Fox. See pdf file entitled “Tabon Man”
• Read them carefully.
• Perform Content Analysis and Comparative Analysis
by answering the activity form that will be uploaded
on BBL.
• Due on January 11, 2021.
The Historian’s Tools
Presentation By Prof. Jet T. Castillo & Prof. Zk
Guevarra
Lecture by: Prof. Zk Guevarra
Pool of Answers
a. 1 j. 4
b. Skull and jaw bone k. brows and nasal bones
c. 3 l. 5
d. False m. hands and feet
e. True n. Fox
f. 2 o. 12
g. 6 p. conversations
h. 8 q. two experts
i. Scott r. From himself, he dug the Tabon Man
Read the Fox document and answer the
following questions
1. According to Fox, from how many individuals did the bones in the
Tabon cave belong to?
2. In what sentence number can we find the answer in no. 1?
3. According to Fox, the Tabon man is a Homo sapiens, True or False?
4. In what sentence number can we find the answer in no. 3?
5. What part of the body/skeleton were the bones?
6. In what sentence number can we find the answer in no. 5?
Read the Scott document and answer the
following questions
7. According to Scott, from how many individuals did the bones in the

Tabon cave belong to?

8. In what sentence number can we find the answer in no. 7?
9. According to Scott, the Tabon man is a Homo sapiens, True or False?
10. In what sentence number can we find the answer in no. 9?
11. What part of the body/skeleton were the bones?
12. In what sentence number can we find the answer in no. 11?
Compare the 2 documents
13. According to Fox, where did Scott get his information about the
Tabon Man?
14. In what sentence number in the Fox document, can we find the
answer in no. 13?
15. According to Scott himself, where did he get his information about
the Tabon Man?
16. In what sentence number in the Scott document, can we find the
answer in no. 15?
Concluding questions
17. According to our context study, where did Fox get his information
about the Tabon Man?
18. Based on questions 13-16, who used primary sources?
19. Based on questions 13-16, who used secondary sources?
20. Who is more reliable, Fox or Scott? Why?