GE 2B-READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY | HISTORY, THE HISTORIAN

AND HISTORICAL SOURCES

“The historian without his fact is rootless and futile;

the facts without their historian are dead and meaningless”
- E. H. Carr

Historians are like detectives who gather information or evidence to put

together the story of the past.

Role and Task of Historian

✓
To seek and interpret historical evidence and facts.
✓
To give meaning to the facts and organize it into a timeline, establish causes,
and write history so that it can offer lessons for nations, societies, and
civilization.
✓
To seek for the meaning of the past to let the people see the continuing
relevance of provenance, memory, remembering, and historical
understanding for both the present and the future.
✓ Gather historical data from sources such as archives, court records, diaries,
news files, and photographs, as well as collect data sources such as books,
pamphlets, and periodicals.
✓ Trace historical development in a particular field, such as social, cultural,
political, or diplomatic history.

HISTORICAL SOURCES
➢ These are objects from the past or testimonies concerning the past on which historians
depend in order to create in order to create their own depiction of that past.
➢ Tangible remains of the past
Historical Sources are classified into two:
1. Primary Sources
2. Secondary Sources
What are Primary Sources?
➢ A first-hand account, record, evidence about a person, place, object, or an event
➢ Testimony of an eyewitness
➢ It must have been produced by the contemporary of the event it narrates
➢ Materials produced by people or groups directly involved in the event or topic being studied
➢ These sources range from eyewitness accounts, diaries, letters, legal documents, and official
documents (government or private) and even photographs.
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FOUR MAIN CATEGORIES OF PRIMARY SOURCES

1. WRITTEN SOURCES
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AND HISTORICAL SOURCES

2. IMAGES
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3. ARTIFACTS

4. ORAL HISTORY

➢ Verbal testimonies which are reported statements involving the past.

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WHAT ARE SECONDARY SOURCES?

➢ Secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources
are one or more steps removed from the event.
➢ Secondary sources may have been pictures, quotes or graphics of primary
sources in them.
➢ An account, record, or evidence that comes from an original or primary source.
Example of Secondary Sources:
✓ Textbooks
✓ Reference Books ✓ Magazines
✓ Biographies ✓ Periodicals
✓ Encyclopedias ✓ Almana

HISTORICAL CRITICISM

Both primary and secondary sources are useful in writing and learning history. However,
historians and students of history need to thoroughly scrutinize these historical sources to
avoid deception and to come up with the historical truth. Historian should be able to conduct
an external and internal criticism of the source.

EXTERNAL CRITICISM
➢ is the practice of verifying the authenticity
of evidence by examining its physical
characteristics; consistency with the
historical characteristic of the time when
it was produced; and the materials used
for the evidence.
Tests of Authenticity
\

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
3. Anachronistic style
e.g. idiom, orthography, punctuation
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4. Anachronistic reference to events

e.g. too early, too late, too remote
5. Provenance or custody
-determine its genuineness
INTERNAL CRITICISM
➢ is the examination of the truthfulness
of the evidence.
➢ Looks at the truthfulness and factuality
of the evidence by looking at the
author of the source, its context, the
agenda behind its creation, the
knowledge which informed it, and its
intended purpose.
Tests of Credibility
1. Identification of the author
➢ e.g. to determine his reliability; mental processes, personal attitudes
2. Determination of the approximate date by looking for example into the
handwriting, signature or seal that would correspond to the characteristics of one
time.

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
SOME CASES OF DECEPTION IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY
CODE OF KALANTIAW
a mythical legal code in the epic history Maragtas. Before it
was revealed a hoax, it was a source of pride for the people in
Aklan. Infact, a historical marker was installed in the town of
Batan, Aklan in 1956, with the following text:

“CODE OF KALANTIAW. Datu Bendehara Kalantiaw, third

Chief o Panay, born in Aklan, established his governement in
the peninsula of Batang, Aklan Sakup. Considered the First
Filipino Lawgiver, he promulgated in about 1433 a penal
code now known as Code of Aklantiaw containing 18
articles. Don Marcelino Orilla of Zaragosa, Spain, obtained
the original manuscript from an old chief of Panay which
 GE 2B-READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY | HISTORY, THE HISTORIAN
AND HISTORICAL SOURCES

was later translated into Spanosh by Rafael Murviedo Yzamaney.”

It was only in 1968 that it was proved a hoax, when William Henry Scott, then doctoral
candidate at the University of Santo Tomas, defended his research on pre-Hispanic sources
in Philippine history. He debunked the authenticity of the code due to anachroism and lack
of evidence to prove that the code existed in the pre-colonial Philippine Society. He
attributed to the code to a historical fiction written in 1913 by Jose E. Marco title Las
Antiguas Leyendas de la Isla de Negros. Marco attributed the code itself to a priest named
Jose Maria Pavon. Prominent Filipino historians did not dissent to Scott’s findings, but
there are still some who would like to belive that the code is a legitimate document.

FERDINAND MARCOS’ WORLD WAR II MEDALS

➢ Ferdinand Marcos claimed that he

was a decorated World War II
soldier who led a guerilla unit called
Ang Maharlika. This is wildly
believed by students of history and
Marcos had medals to show. This
claims, however was disproven
when historians counterchecked
Marcos’ claims with the war
records of the United States.

SA AKING MGA KABATA

➢ A poem purportedly written by Jose Rizal when he was eight years old and is
probably one of Rizal’s most prominent works.
➢ There is no evidence to support the claim that
this poem, with the now immortalized lines
“Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang
salita/mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda” was
written by Rizal.
EVIDENCES AGAINST RIZAL AUTHORSHIP

• No manuscript of the poem written by

Rizal.
• The poem’s spelling is also suspect the use
of letters “k” and “w” to replace “c” and
“u”, respectively was suggested by Rizal as
an adult.
• The poem was written is written in Tagalog and referred to the word
“kalayaan”. But it was documented that in Rizal’s letters that he first
encountered the word through a Marcelo H. Del Pilar’s translation of essay
“El Amor Patrio”, where it was spelled as “kalayahan”
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• While Rizal’s native tongue was Tagalog, he was educated in Spanish, starting
from his mother, Teodora Alonso. Later on, he would express dissapointment
in his difficulty in expressing hiimself in his native tongue.