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Activity 3

The document discusses Philippine historiography from pre-colonial to post-colonial periods. It lists historiographers and their works during each period. It also identifies which period the works belong to and asks essay questions about developments in Philippine historiography and the importance of being familiar with it.

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Josslyn Ang Garces
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17 views

Activity 3

The document discusses Philippine historiography from pre-colonial to post-colonial periods. It lists historiographers and their works during each period. It also identifies which period the works belong to and asks essay questions about developments in Philippine historiography and the importance of being familiar with it.

Uploaded by

Josslyn Ang Garces
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Activity 3: Philippine Historiography

I. List down at least 3 historiographers and their contributions during the Pre-colonial,
Spanish Colonial, American Colonial, and Post-colonial periods. (50 pts.)
PRE-COLONIAL
 Fr. Pedro Chirino - “Relacion de las Islas Filipinas”, a narrative of the life of the
Filipinos before their colonization
 Antonio Pigafetta - chronicle about Magellan’s voyage included profound ethnographic
details on the culture of the early Filipinos. His accounts were valuable because of the
firsthand information on Philippine culture before the Spanish contact (Sebastian, n.d.).
 Juan de Plasencia - provide pieces of information about the government, administration
of justice, inheritances, slaves, dowries, worship, burials, and superstition of the colony,
“Los Costumbres de los Tagalos”
SPANISH COLONIAL
 Fr. Juan Delgado - his account depicted the Philippines in terms of political,
ecclesiastical, economic, social, and cultural aspects
 Thomas de Comyn - “Estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1810”, his work is valuable
because it described the colonial economy after the opening of Manila to international
world trade
 Father Pedro Murillo Y. Velarde - his records on Philippine history, mission and
conquest of Mindanao, and including the map of the archipelago.
AMERICAN COLONIAL
 Epifanio de los Santos - His monographs regarding the revolution and the life of several
heroes became one of the bases of modern historians
 Pardo de Tavera - valuable Filipiniana anthology entitled “Biblioteca Filipina”
published in 1903 was one of the most reliable sources of historians in writing the history
of the Philippines
 Fred Atkinson - his book “The Philippine Islands”, 1903
SPANISH COLONIAL
 Renato Constantino - “The Philippines: A Past Revisited” published in 1975
 Diokno, Salazar, Agoncillo, Ileto, Guerrero, Ocampo, and others – work hard to
counter the colonial historiography that dominated Philippine historiography for a long
time

II. Identify the period of historiography does the historiographer and/or the historical
account belong to. Write Pr for Pre-colonial, S for Spanish colonial, A for American
colonial, and PC for Post-colonial.
Pr 1. Fr. Pedro Chirino
Pr 2. Laguna Copperplate Inscription
PC 3 Zeus Salazar
PC 4. Ileto’s Pasyon and Revolution
Pr 5. Sucessos de las Islas Felipinas Annotated by Rizal
A 6. Pardo de Tavera’s Filipiniana collections
A 7. James LeRoy’s “Philippine Past and Present”
Pr 8. Fr. Juan de Plasencia
__ Pr 9. Relascion de las Islas Felipinas
PC 10. Looking Back series by Ambeth Ocampo

III. Essay. Compose a comprehensive single essay that answers the following questions.
Write in paragraph form consisting of 300 words at most. (50pts)
1. What were the developments in Philippine historiography? What major
changes in the style and perspective did it underwent.
2. Why is it important to be familiar with Philippine historiography and the
perspectives they inject? Explain.

In the given time that the Philippines were colonized and had different eras along the
years. Philippine Historiography allowed us to distinctly study the country’s beginnings,
sufferings, and etc. As the country faced a lot of struggles, so did the Philippine Historiography;
it faced a lot of downfalls, revolution, and criticism.
In the Pre-Colonial Period, since most of the records were written in an unreliable
material, most of them were destroyed. Only one written document was found, which the Laguna
Copper Institution is, they considered it as the first and only written legal document which was
inscribed on a copper plate. This era shows the historiography’s first existence but it hasn’t been
thoroughly developed.
Philippine Historiography basically began in the Spanish Colonial Period since the
historiographer’s were mostly the Spanish friars. The Spanish friars concentrated on their
expeditions in the country as missionaries, it focuses on the study of the culture and religiously
documented the early Filipinos. In this era, foreign writers were mostly the historians who also
had a keen interest in the Philippines and has also contributed in providing the Filipino
Historians an alternative worldview in understanding our beginnings through the foreign
residents’ observation in the Philippines. This era was also the beginning of the Philippines’
recognition in pertaining to the Filipino Ilustrados, who became the first Filipino nationalist-
historians who defended the country from biased portrayals made by some of the foreign
historians.
It was considered in the American era that writings were better than during the Spanish
era. Filipino Ilustrados in this era saved numerous information concerning the Filipino society,
cultures, and history. The American exerted their efforts in writing the Philippine’s history,
though, most of them are biased. In this era, the colonial officials highlighted the changes and
developments that the United States had made and it somehow showed that without the
Americans, the Filipino’s would’ve been nothing. Since the Filipinos were corrupted with their
minds by the American, they now looked at the Americans as the benefactors and it led into a
new resistance; the colonial relationship.
In the Pre-Colonial Period, 1950- early 90s was considered as great eras in the history of
Philippine historical writing. The writings in the post-era were considered revolutionary as the
Filipino historians wrote the history of the Philippines themselves. They were able to produce
historical writings in their perspective that served as a better foundation of understanding the
country and the Filipinos.
Most of the Filipinos are unfamiliar with the Philippine historiography but what others
don’t know is that to familiarize it, is important. It helps us understand the history in our country
by the different perspective that it has brought. Historiography enables us unveil the true
happenings in the history of our country, how in certain eras, unfair portrayals of our nation were
presented and our fellow men defended our country as it was unjust. Anyone can understand the
history of the Philippine when they indulge themselves in being familiar with the Philippine
historiography.

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