 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

 “ knowledge acquired through inquiry or
investigation”.

 Existed for around 2,400 years and it is old as

mathematics and philosophy

 HISTORIA- became known as the account of the

past of a person or a group of people through
written documents and historical evidences.

 became an academic discipline

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

-Webster’s Vest Pocket Dictionary(Springfield:

Merriam Webster, Inc., Publishers), p. 149
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).
“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
 the historian is many times removed from the
events under investigation

 historians rely on surviving records

 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
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
 These are objects 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
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 Primary Sources?

Testimony of an eyewitness

A primary source must have been

produced by a contemporary of the
event it narrates

are those sources produced at the

same time as the event, period ,
orsubject being studied
 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
Example of Primary sources:

Commonwealth Constitution Convention of

1935

minutes of the convention, newspaper

clippings, Phil. Commission reports of the
U.S. Commissioners, records of the
convention , the draft of the Constitution,
and even photographs of the event.
Eyewitness accounts of convention
delegates and their memoirs can also be
used as primary sources.

Historical study, archival documents,

artifacts, memorabilia, letters, census, and
government records
Four Main Categories of Primary
Sources

1. Written sources
2. Images
3. Artifacts
4. Oral testimony
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- are those , which
were produced by an author who used
primary sources to produce the material.

-historical sources , which studied a

certain historical subject.
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
 In order for a source to be used as evidence
in history, basic matters about its form and
content must be settled

1. External Criticism
2. Internal Criticism
 the practice of verifying the authenticity of
evidence by examining physical
characteristics, consistency with the historical
characteristics of the time when it was
produced and the materials used for evidence.
 The problem of authenticity
 To spot fabricated, forged, faked documents
 To distinguish a hoax or misrepresentation
1. Determine the date of the document to
see whether they are anachronistic
e.g. pencils did not exist before the 16th
Century

2. Determine the author

e.g. handwriting, signature, seal

- Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History

3. Anachronistic style
e.g. idiom, ortography, punctuation

4. Anachronistic reference to events

e.g. too early, too late, too remote

5. Provenance or custody
- determines its genuineness
- Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History
6. Semantics – determining the meaning of a
text or word

7. Hermeneutics – determining ambiguities

-Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History

 Examination of the truthfulness of the evidence
 The Problem of Credibility

 Relevant particulars in the document – is it

credible?

 Verisimilar – as close as what really happened

from a critical examination of best available
sources
- Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History
1. Identification of the author
e.g. to determine his reliability; mental
processes, personal attitudes

2. Determination of the approximate date

3. Ability to tell the truth
- nearness to the event, competence of
witness, degree of attention

4. Willingness to tell the truth

- to determine if the author
consciously or unconsciously tells
falsehoods
5. Corroboration
i.e. historical facts – particulars which rest
upon the independent testimony of two or
more reliable witnesses

- Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History

1. Sensitivity to Multiple Causation

2. Sensitivity to Context

3. Awareness of the interplay of continuity

and change in human affairs
“All historians, whatever their professional
status, have ethical obligations to be humane,
accurate, selfaware and judicious.”

- Ludmilla Jordanova
 Ma. Florina Orillos-Juan, Ph.D. Department of History, De la
Salle University Manila

 Gottschalk, L.(1969). Understanding History: A Primer of

Historical Method. New York: A.A. Knopf.
 Howell, M. & Walter, P.(2001).From Reliable Sources:An
Introduction to Historical Methods.Ithaca, New York:Cornell
University Press.
History has been used to control minds. If not
by absolute suppression or fabrication of
events, at least by their slight distortion.

The catastrophic result

of this is that the
colonizers became the
unselfish, humane and
selfless partners.

This “invented history” by the colonizers

became an important component in the
progression of colonial consciousness
or mentality.
 This “fictional history” hides the fact of
the insensitive motivations of the colonizers
and their native collaborators towards making
colonization easier to accept.

This mental conditioning has made it easy

for the colonizers to make the colonized believe
that the policies implemented by the former is
for their own welfare and benefit.
“The history perpetrated by the Americans
who in their desire to present themselves as
altruistic benefactors rather than conquerors
minimized or concealed from succeeding
generations of Filipinos the cruelties
committed by their army as well as the fierce
resistance of the people.”

-Renato Constantino
Maraming salamat po!