CHAPTER 3

Philippine History: Spaces for

Conflict and Controversies
Group 2:
Mea T. Baquilar
Analiza Bayron
Ydionna Mae Borromeo
 Making Sense
of the Past:
Historical Interpretation
 Geoffrey Barraclough

- defined history as “the attempt to discover, on

the basis of fragmentary evidence, the significant
things about the past.”
- also notes “the history we read, though based
on facts, is strictly speaking, not factual at all, but a
series of accepted judgements.”
Foundation of Historical Interpretation
- the judgements of historians on how
the past should be seen.

Historians utilize facts collected from primary

sources of history and draw their own readings so
that the audience may understand the historical
event, a process in essence, “makes sense of the
past.”
 Without proper training and background, a
non- historian interpreting a primary source may do
more harm than good- a primary source may even
cause misunderstandings, or even result to more
problems.

Interpretation of the past vary according to:

- who reads the primary source
- when it was read
- how it was read
 As a student of history you must be well
equipped to recognize:

- different types of interpretations

- why those differ from each other
- how to critically sift those interpretations
through historical evaluation
 - Just because the things about the past were
taught to us as “facts” when we were younger, does
not mean that it is set in stone.

- History after all, is a construct.

- There might be conflicting and competing

accounts of the past that needs attention and can
affect the way we view our country’s history and
identity.
Examples of Historical
Interpretation
Subject to Evaluation
 Code of Kalantiaw

- a mythical legal code in the epic history Maragtas,

that was before a source of pride for the people of Aklan
before it was proved as a hoax.

- historical marker was installed in Batan, Aklan

in 1956 saying that Datu Bendehara Kalantiaw,
considered as First Filipino Lawgiver, promulgated
this penal code in 1433 in Batang, Aklan Sakup.
 William Henry Scott (1968)

- he proved it as a hoax and defended it in his

research on pre-Hispanic sources in Philippine history.
- he attributed the code as a historical fiction
written by Jose E. Marcos titled Las Antiguas Leyendas de
la Isla Negros but some still believe
that it is true.
 “Sa Aking Mga Kababata”

- a poem written by Dr. Jose Rizal when he was

8 years old and probably one of his prominent works.
- There is no evidence to support the claim that
it was written by Dr. Jose Rizal.
- No manuscript exists that the poem was
handwritten by Rizal.
- The poem was first published in 1906 in a book
by Hermenegildo Cruz.
 Cruz Gabriel Beato Francisco Saturnino Raselis

- Rizal never mentioned writing poem in any of his

writings as well as never mentioned of having a close
friend named Raselis.
- The poem was written in Tagalog referred to the
word “kalayaan”, but it was documented in Rizal’s
letters that he first encountered this word through
Marcelo H. del Pilar’s translation of his essay “El
Amor Patrio,” which spelled as “kalayahan.”
 -Rizal was educated in Spanish starting from his
mother, Teodora Alonso and would express
disappointment in difficulty of expressing his native tongue.

- The poem’s spelling is also suspect.

Rizal, as an adult, was the one who suggest that the
use of “c” and “u” in Spanish will be changed
respectively to “k” and “w.”
 Multiperspectivity

- another important concept in interpreting the past.

- defined as a way of looking at historical events,
personalities, developments, cultures, and societies from
different perspectives.
- historians decides on what sources to use, what
interpretation to make more apparent, depending on what
his end is.
 Historians may :
- misinterpret evidence
-omit significant facts about their subject (unbalanced)
- impose certain ideology against their subject
- provide a single cause for an event without
considering other possible explanations

Historical interpretations contain discrepancies,

contradictions, ambiguities, and the focus of dissent.
 Different kinds of sources provide different
historical truths- an official document may note
different aspects of the past.

Different historical agents create different historical

truths and renders more validity to the historical
scholarship.