Ge 1 THE MEANING OF HISTORY, SOURCES OF HISTORICAL DATA, & HISTORICAL CRITICISMS OVERVIEW Lesson 1 introduces history as a discipline and as a narrative. It discusses the limitation of historical knowledge, history as the subjective process of re-creation, and historical method and historiography. Lesson 2 presents the sources of historical data, the written and non-written sources of history, as well as the differentiation of primary and secondary sources of information or data, Lesson 3 discusses historical criticisms, namely, external and internal criticisms. These are important aspects in ascertaining the authenticity and reliability of primary sources upon which narratives are crafted.uissont | THE MEANING OF HISTORY __J HISTORY is derived from the Greek word historia which means learning by inquiry. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, looked upon history as the systematicaccounting of aset of natural phenomena, that is, taking into consideration the chronological arrangement of the account. This explained that knowledge is derived through conducting a process of scientific investigation of past events. The word History is referred usually for accounts of phenomena, especially human affairs in chronological order. There are theories constructed by historians in investigating history: the factual history and the speculative history. Factual history presents readers the plain and basic information vis-a-vis the events that took place (what), the time and date with which the events happened (when), the place with which the events took place, and the people that were involved (who). Speculative history, on the other hand, goes beyond facts because it is concerned about the reasons for which events happened (why), and the way they happened (how). “It tries to speculate on the cause and effect of an event” (Cantal, Cardinal, Espino & Galindo, 2014). History deals with the study of past events. Individuals who write about history are called historians. They seek to understand the present by examining what went before. They undertake arduous historical research to come up with a meaningful and organized rebuilding of the past. But whose past are we talking about? This is the basic question that the historian needs to answer because this sets the purpose and framework of a historical account. Hence, a salient feature of historical writing is the facility to give meaning andimpact value to a group of people about their past. The practice of historical writing is called historiography, the traditional method in doing historical research that focus on gathering of documents from different libraries and archives to form a pool of evidence needed in making a descriptive or analytical narrative. The modern historical writing does not only include examination of documents but also the use of research methods from related areas of study such as archeology and geography. THE LIMITATION OF HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE The incompleteness of records has limited man's knowledge of history. Most human affairs happen without leaving any evidence or records of any kind, no artifacts, or if there are, no further evidence of the human setting in which to place surviving artifacts. Although it may have happened, but the past has perished forever with only occasional traces, The whole history of the past (called history-as-actuality) can be known to a historian only through the surviving records (history-as-record), and most of history- as-record is only a tiny part the whole phenomenon. Even the archaeological and anthropological discoveries are only small parts discovered from the total past. 2 READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORYHistorians study the records or evidences that survived the time. They tell history from what they understood as a credible part of the record. However, their claims may remain variable as there can be historical records that could be discovered, which may affirm or refute those that they have already presented. This explains the “incompleteness” of the “object” that historians study. HISTORY AS THE SUBJECTIVE PROCESS OF RE-CREATION From the incomplete evidence, historians strive to restore the total past of mankind. They do it from the point of view that human beings live in different times and that their experiences maybe somehow comparable, or that their experiences may have significantly differed contingent on the place and time. For the historian, history becomes only that part of the human past which can be meaningfully reconstructed from the available records and from inferences regarding their setting, In short, the historian’s aim is verisimilitude (the truth, authenticity, plausibility) about a past. Unlike the study of the natural science that has objectively measurable phenomena, the study of history is a subjective process as documents and relics are scattered and do not together comprise the total object that the historian is studying. Some of the natural scientists, such as geologists and paleo-zoologists who study fossils from the traces of a perished past, greatly resemble historians in this regard, but they differ at certain points since historians deal with human testimonies as well as physical traces. HISTORICAL METHOD AND HISTORIOGRAPHY The process of critically examining and analyzing the records and survivals of the past is called historical method. The imaginative reconstruction of the past from the data derived by that process is called historiography. By means of historical method and historiography (both of which are frequently grouped together simply as historical method), the historian endeavors to reconstruct as much of the past of mankind as he/ she can. Evenin this limited effort, however, the historian ishandicapped. He/She rarely can tell the story even of a part of the past as it occurred. For the past conceived of as something that ‘actually occurred” places obvious limits upon the kinds of record and of imagination that the historian may use. These limits distinguish history from fiction, poetry, drama, and fantasy. Historical analysis is also an important element of historical method. In historical analysis, historians: (1) select the subject to investigate; (2) collect probable sources of information on the subject; (3) examine the sources genuineness, in part of in whole; and (4) extract credible “particulars” from the sources (or parts of sources). The synthesis of the “particulars” thus derived is historiography. Synthesis and analysis cannot be entirely separated since they have a common ground, which is the ability to understand the past through some meaningful, evocative and convincing, historical or cross-disciplinary connections between a given historical issue and other historical contexts, periods, or themes. READINGS IN PHILI NE HISTORY 3LESSON? | SOURCES OF HISTORICAL DATA __J HISTORICAL DATA are sourced from artifacts that have been left by the past. These artifacts can either be relics or remains, or the testimonies of witnesses to the past. Thus, historical sources are those materials from which the historians construct meaning. To rearticulate, a source is an object from the past or a testimony concerning the past on. which historians depend to create their own depiction of that past. A historical work or interpretation is thus the result of such depiction. The source provides evidence about the existence of an event; anda historical interpretation is an argument about the event. Relics or “remains,” whose existence offer researchers a clue about the past. For example, the relics or remains of a prehistoric settlement. Artifacts can be found where relics of human happenings can be found, for example, a potsherd, a coin, a ruin, a manuscript, a book, a portrait, a stamp, a piece of wreckage, a strand of hair, or other archaeological or anthropological remains. These objects, however, are never the happenings or the events; if written documents, they may be the results or the records of events. Whether artifacts or documents, they are materials out of which history may be written (Howell and Prevenier, 2001). Testimonies of witnesses, whether oral or written, may have been created to serve as records or they might have been created for some other purposes. All these describe an event, such as the record of a property exchange, speeches, and commentaries. The historian deals with the dynamic or genetic (the becoming) as well as the static (the being) and aims at being interpretative (explaining why and how things happened and were interrelated) as well as descriptive (telling what happened, when and where, and who took part). Besides, such descriptive data as can be derived directly and immediately from surviving artifacts are only small parts of the periods to which they belong. A historical context can be given to them only if they can be placed in a human setting. The lives of human beings can be assumed from the retrieved artifacts, but without further evidence the human contexts of these artifacts can never be recaptured with any degree of certainty. WRITTEN SOURCES OF HISTORY Written sources are usually categorized in three ways: (1) narrative or literary, (2) diplomatic or juridical, and (8) social documents. 1. Narrative or literature are chronicles or tracts presented in narrative form, written to impart a message whose motives for their composition vary widely. For example, a scientific tract is typically composed in order to inform 6 READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORYcontemporaries or succeeding generations; a newspaper article might be intended to shape opinion; the so-called ego document or personal narrative such as a diary ‘or memoir might be composed in order to persuade readers of the justice of the author's actions; a novel or film might be made to entertain, to deliver a moral teaching, or to furthera religious cause; a biography might be written in praise of the subject’s worth and achievements (a panegyric, a public speech or published text in praise of someone or something or hagiography, the writing of the lives of saints). A narrative source is therefore broader than what is usually considered fiction(Howell & Prevenier, 2001). 2. Diplomatic sources are understood ta be those which document/record an existing legal situation or createa new one, and itis these kinds of sources that professional historians once treated as the purest, the “best” source. The classic diplomatic source is the charter, which a legal instrument. A legal document is usually sealed orauthenticated to provide evidence that a legal transaction has been completed and can be used as evidence in a judicial proceeding in case of dispute. Scholars differentiate those legal instruments issued by public authorities (such as kings or popes, the Supreme Court of the Philippines and Philippine Congress) from those involving only private parties (such as a will or a mortgage agreement). Diplomatic sources possess specific formal properties, such as hand and print style, the ink, the seal, for external properties and rhetorical devices and images for internal properties, which are determined by the norms of laws and by tradition. Such characters also vary in time (each generation has its own norms) and according to origin (each bureaucracy has its own traditions). 3. Social documents are information pertaining to economic, social, political, or judicial significance, They are records kept by bureaucracies. A few examples are government reports, such as municipal accounts, research findings, and documents like these parliamentary procedures, civil registry records, property registers, and records of census. NON-WRITTEN SOURCES OF HISTORY Unwritten sources are as essential as written sources. They are two types: the material evidence and oral evidence. 1. Material evidence, also known as archaeological evidence is one of the most important unwritten evidences. This inchide artistic creations such as pottery, jewelry, dwellings, graves, churches, roads, and others that tell a story about the past. These artifacts can tell a great deal about the ways of life of people im the past, and their culture. These artifacts can also reveal a great deal about the socio-cultural interconnections of the different groups of people especially when an object is unearthed in more one place. Commercial exchange may also be revealed by the presence of artifacts in different places. Even places that are thought to be insignificant, such as garbage pits, can provide valuable information to historians as these can be traces of a former settlement. READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY 7Sometimes, archaeological sites that are of interest to historians are unearthed during excavations for roads, sewer lines, and big building structures. Known historical sites are purposely excavated with the hope of reconstructing and understanding their meaningful past. Moreover, archaeological finds such as coins or monies can provide historians with significant information relating to government transactions during which the currencies were in circulation. Similarly, historians can get substantial information from drawings, etchings, paintings, films, and photographs. These are the visual representations of the past. 2. Oral evidence is also an important source of information for historians. Much are told by the tales or sagas of ancient peoples and the folk songs or popular rituals from the premodern period of Philippine history. During the present age, interviews is another major form of oral evidence. PRIMARY VERSUS SECONDARY SOURCES ‘There are two general kinds of historical sources: direct or primary and indirect or secondary. 1. Primary sources are original, first-hand account of an event or period that are usually written or made during or dlose to the event or period. These sources are original and factual, not interpretive. Their key function is to provide facts. Examples of primary sources are diaries, journals, letters, newspaper and magazine articles (factual accounts), government records (census, marriage, military), photographs, maps, postcards, posters, recorded or transcribed speeches, interviews with participants or witnesses, interviews with people who lived during a certain time, songs, plays, novels, stories, paintings, drawings, and sculptures. 2. Secondary sources, on the other hand, are materials made by people long after the events being described had taken place to provide valuable interpretations of historical events. A secondary source analyzes and interprets primary sources. It is an interpretation of second-hand account of a historical event. Examples of secondary sources are biographies, histories, literary criticism, books written by a third party about a historical event, art and theater reviews, newspaper or journal articles that interpret. 8 READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORYUesson3 | HISTORICAL CRITICISMS ___J HISTORICAL CRITICISM examines the origins of earliest text to appreciate the underlying circumstances upon which the text came to be (Soulen & Soulen, 2001). It has two important goals: First, to discover the original meaning of the text in its primitive or historical context and its literal sense or sensus literalis historicus. Second, to establish a reconstruction of the historical situation of the author and recipients of the text. Historical criticism has two types, external criticism and internal criticism. Historical criticism has its roots in the 17" century during the Protestant Reformation and gained popular recognition in the 19 and 20" centuries (Ebeling, 1963). The absence of historical investigation paved the way for historical criticism to rest on philosophical and theological interpretation. The passing of time has advanced historical criticism into various methodologies used today such as source criticism (which analyzes and studies the sources used by biblical authors), form criticism (which seeks to determine a unit's original formand historical context of the literary tradition), redaction criticism (which regards the author of the text as editor of the source materials), tradition criticism (which attempts to trace the developmental stages of the oral tradition from its historical emergence to its literary presentation), canonical criticism (which focuses its interpretation of the bible on the text of biblical canon), and related methodologies (Soulen, 2001). There are two parts to a historical criticism. The first part is to determine the authenticity of the material, also called provenance of a source. The critic should determine the origin of the material, its author, and the sources of information used. External criticism is used in determining these facts. The second part is to weigh the testimony to the truth. The critic must examine the trustworthiness of the testimonies as well as determine the probability of the statements to be true. This process is called internal criticism or higher criticism since it deals with more important matters than the external form, 1. External criticism determines the authenticity of the source. The authenticity of the material may be tested in two ways, by palaeographical (the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts) and diplomatic criticism (critical analysis of historical document to understand how the document came to be, the information transmitted, and the relationships between the facts purported in the document and the reality). The material must be investigated based on the time and place it is written. The critic must determine whether the material under investigation is raw, meaning unaltered, and it exists exactly asthe author leftit. READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY u‘The content must be viewed in every possible angle, as forgery was not unknown during the Middle Ages. The authenticity of the material can be examined from other genuine sources having the same subject or written during the same period. The similarities or agreementsand differences or disagreements of some common details, such as the culture and traditions, and events during the period by which the document was made can be a basis for judging the authenticity of the text. 2. Internal criticism determines the historicity of the facts contained in the document. It is not necessary to prove the authenticity of the material or document. However, the facts contained in the document must first be tested before any conclusion pertaining to it can be admitted. In determining the value of the facts, the character of the sources, the knowledge of the author, and the influences prevalent at the time of writing must be carefully investigated. It must be ascertained first that the critic knows exactly what the author said and that he/she understands the document from the standpoint of the author. Moreover, the facts given by the author or writer must be firmly established as having taken place exactly as reported. TEST OF AUTHENTICITY To distinguish a hoax or a misrepresentation froma genuine document, the historian must use tests common in police and legal detection. Making the best guess of the date of the document, he/she examines the materials to see whether they are not anachronistic: paper was rare in Europe before the fifteenth century, and printing was unknow: pencils did not exist there before the 16" century; typewriting was not invented until the 19" century; and Indian paper came only at the end of that century. The historian also examines the inks for signs of age or of anachronistic chemical composition. Making the best guess of the possible author of the document, he/she sees if he/ she can identify the handwriting, signature, seal, letterhead, or watermark. Even when the handwriting is unfamiliar, it can be compared with authenticated specimens. One of the unfulfilled needs of the historian is more of what the French call “isographies” or the dictionaries of biography giving examples of handwriting. For some period of history, experts using techniques known as paleography and diplomatics have long known that in certain regions at certain times handwriting and the style and form of official documents were conventionalized. The disciplines of paleography and diplomatics were founded in 17% century by Dom Jean Mabillon, a French Benedictine monk and scholar of the Congregation of Saint Maur. Seals have been the subject of special study by sigillographers, and experts can detect fake ones. Anachronistic styles (idiom, orthography, or punctuation) can be detected by specialists who are familiar with contemporary writing, Often spelling particularly of proper names and signatures, reveal forgery as would also unhistoric grammar. 12 READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORYAnachronistic references to events (too early or too late or too remote) or the dating of a document at a time when the alleged writer could not possibly have been at the place designated (the alibi) uncovers fraud, Sometimes the skillful forger has all too carefully followed the best historical sources and his product becomes too obviously a copy in certain passages; by skillful paraphrase and invention, he/she is given away by the absence of trivia and otherwise unknown details from his/her manufactured account. However, usually if the document is where it ought to be (e.g., ina family's archives, of in the governmental bureau's record) its provenance (custody, as the lawyers refer to it), creates a presumption of its genuineness (Gottschalk, 1969).