HISTORY HISTORY AS SUBJECTIVE PROCESS OF RECREATION
Greek Word: Historia- learning by inquiry
Aristotle- systematic accounting of a set of natural
phenomena in a chronological arrangement
COMPLETE DEFINITION- Accounts of phenomena,
especially, human affairs in chronological order
Conducted thru scientific investigation of past events
Study of past events
THEORIES
1. Factual History
Presents information on
WHAT- basic information about the events
WHEN- time and date
WHERE- place that took place
WHO- people involved
2. Speculative History
Goes beyond facts
Speculates the cause and effect of an event
Presents information on
WHY- reasons for which events happened
HOW- how it happened
Historians
Individuals who write about history
Seek to understand the present by analyzing the past
Undertake research to meaningfully rebuild the past
“Whose past are we talking about”
Basic question that sets the purpose and framework of a
historical account
Historical writing must give meaning to a group of people
about their past
Historiography
The practice of historical writing
Traditional method that focus on gathering documents to
form evidence in making a descriptive or analytical
narrative.
Modern uses research methods from related fields like
archeology and geography
LIMITATION OF HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE
Incompleteness of records = limited knowledge of history
Most human affairs in the past leave no or insufficient
evidences or records
History as actuality
The whole history of the past
History as recorded
How the historian recorded the past
Only a tiny part of the whole phenomenon
Incompleteness of the object of study
Historians only study the surviving evidences
Their claims can be varied, and newer discoveries can
refute or affirm their findings
From the incomplete evidence, historians restore the
past thru inferring it with the point of view and
experiences of humans living in that time.
Verisimilitude
Historians must practice truth, authenticity and
plausibility about a past
Natural science has objectively measurable phenomena,
meanwhile history is a subjective process of scattered
traces and documents
Historians- deal with human testimonies and physical
traces
Geologists & paleo-zoologists- studies fossils
HISTORICAL METHOD AND HISTORIOGRAPHY
Historical Method
The process of critically examining the records and
survivals of the past
Historiography
Imaginative reconstruction of the past from the data
derived by that process
Frequently grouped as historical method
Historians try to reconstruct the past as much as he can,
but is handicapped because he can rarely tell the past as
it actually happened. These limits history from fiction.
Historical Analysis
Also an important element in historical method
Steps
1. Select the subject to investigate
2. Collect probable sources of information
3. Examine the source’s genuineness as part of the whole
4. Extract credible particulars from the sources
The product or synthesis derived is called historiography
Analysis and synthesis can’t be separated because they
have a common ground, which is to meaningfully
understand the past
Artifacts or documents
Raw materials out of which history may be written
 SOURCES OF HISTORICAL DATA Novel or film
Made to entertain, to deliver a moral teaching, to further
Historical Data a religious cause
Sourced from artifacts that have been left by the past
Can either be relics, remains, testimonies of witnesses Biography
Materials from which historians construct meaning Written in praise of the subject’s worth or achievements

Historical Source Panegyric- speech/text honoring someone or something

An object from the past or a testimony concerning the Hagiography- about the lives of saints
past on which historians depend to create their own
depiction of that past. 2. DIPLOMATIC SOURCES
Provides evidence about the existence of an event Documents existing legal situations, or create a new one
This produces historical work or interpretation Historians call these the purest, best source
Differentiated to public authorities from private parties
Historical interpretation Examples: will, mortgage agreement
An argument about the event Possess specific formal properties determined by law or
tradition
Relics or remains External properties- hand/print style, ink, seal
Offer a clue about the past Internal properties- rhetorical devices, images
Artefacts can be found where relics of human happenings
can be found Charter
Examples: potshard, coin, ruin, manuscript, book, A classic diplomatic source, a legal instrument
portrait, stamp, piece of wreckage, strand of hair,
archaeological/anthropological remains Legal document
Sealed to provide evidence that a legal transaction has
Testimonies of witnesses been completed; can be used as evidence in a judicial
Can be oral or written; created to serve as records or for proceeding during disputes
other purposes.
Describes an event such as property exchange, speech, 3. SOCIAL DOCUMENTS
commentaries Information pertaining to economic, social, political, or
judicial significance.
HISTORIANS DEAL WITH Records kept by bureaucracies
Dynamic or genetic- the becoming Examples: municipal accounts, research findings,
Static- the being parliamentary procedures, civil registry records, property
registers, consensus
…AND AIMS AT BEING
Interpretative- explaining why and how it happened and NON-WRITTEN SOURCES OF HISTORY
are interrelated
Descriptive- what, when, where it happened, and who 1. MATERIAL EVIDENCE OR ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
took part Most important unwritten evidences
Tell about people’s way of life and culture
Descriptive data derived from artifacts are only small Reveal about socio-cultural interconnections
parts of the periods to which they belong. Artistic creations- potter, jewelry, dwellings, graves,
A historical context can be given to them if they are churches, roads
placed in human setting.
Commercial Exchange
WRITTEN SOURCES OF HISTORY Can also be revealed by the presence of artifacts in places

1. NARRATIVE OR LITERARY Infrastructures

Chronicles presented in narrative form, written to impart Example: Garbage pits, roads, sewer lines, buildings
a message Can provide valuable information; these can be a former
settlement
Scientific Tract Unearthed to become archaeological sites
Typically composed in order to inform generations
Known Historical sites
Newspaper Article Purposely excavated to reconstruct the past
Intended to shape opinion
Coins and monies
Ego document or Personal narrative Provide information about government transactions
Examples are diary, memoir
Composed in order to persuade readers of the justice of Visual Representations
the author’s actions Drawing, etchings, painting, film, photographs, sculptures
2. ORAL EVIDENCE
Premodern- tales, sagas, folk songs, popular rituals
Modern- Interviews
PRIMARY VS SECONDARY SOURCES
1. Direct or Primary Sources
Original, first-hand account of an event that are usually
written or made during or close to the event
Are original and factual, not interpretative
Example: diaries, journals, letters, newspaper and
magazine (factual), government records, photographs,
maps, postcards, posters, recorded/transcribed speeches,
interviews, songs, plays, novels, stories, visual
representations
2. Indirect or Secondary Sources
Materials made by people long after the events being
described had taken pace to provide valuable
interpretations of historical events
Analyzes and interprets primary sources
Interpretation of second-hand account
Examples: biographies, histories, literary criticism, critics
or reviews, opinions, interpretative print media
HISTORICAL CRITICISMS
Historical criticisms
Examines the origins of earliest text to appreciate the
underlying circumstances upon which the text came to
be.
Rooted back in 17th century (Protestant Reformation)
Popular in 19th and 20th century
The absence of historical investigation led to historical
criticism based on philosophy and theological
interpretations
TWO IMPORTANT GOALS
First- discover the original meaning of the text in its 1)
primitive/historical context, 2) literal sense (sensus
literalis historicus)
Second- establish a reconstruction of the historical
situation if the author and recipients of the text
TWO PARTS
FIRST- Provenance of the source
- Determine the authenticity of the material
- Determine the origins, author, sources of info used
- External criticism is used in getting these facts
SECOND- Weigh the testimony to the truth
-Examine the trustworthiness, probability of the
statements to be true
-Processed thru internal criticism or higher
criticism since it deals on more important matters than
externally
METHODOLOGIES
Source criticism
Studies the sources used by biblical authors
Form criticism
Determines a unit’s original form and historical context of
the literary tradition
Redaction criticism
Regards the author of the text as editor of the material
Tradition criticism
Traces the developmental stages of the oral tradition
from historical emergence to literary presentation
Canonical criticism
Interpretation of the bible on the text of biblical canon
TYPES OF HISTORICAL CRITICISM
1. EXTERNAL CRITICISM
Determines the authenticity of the source.
It can be tested using:
Paleographical- deciphering and dating of historical
manuscripts
Diplomatic criticism- critical analysis of historical
document to understand its origins, information
transmitted, relationships between what’s written and
what’s actual
Materials must be investigated on the time and place of
writing
Determine if material is raw/unaltered/exactly as the
author left it
The content must be viewed in every possible angle
Authenticity of material can be examined thru similarities
and differences from similar subjects on the same period
Forgery
Already widespread during Middle Ages
2. INTERNAL CRITICISM
Determines the historicity of the facts contained in the
document
It is not necessary to prove the authenticity, but facts
must first be tested before any conclusion can be made.
To determine facts, investigate the characters, knowledge
of the author, influences prevalent at the time of writing.
The critic must know what the author said and
understand the document based on his standpoint.
Facts must be established based on how it was reported
TEST OF AUTHENTICITY
To distinguish hoaxes, the historian must use tests.
1. MAKING THE BEST GUESS OF THE DATE
Historians analyze if the document is anachronistic: error
in chronology
Ink is examined for signs of age or of anachronistic
chemical composition
15th century
Paper was rare in Europe, and printing was unknown
Before 16th century
Pencils did not exist
19th century Contextual Analysis
Invention of typewriting Considers specifically the time, place, situation when the
primary source was written.
End of 19th century Analyzes the author’s background, authority on the
Indian paper was invented subject, intent, relevance, meaning to people and society
today
2. MAKING THE BEST GUESS OF THE AUTHOR
Historians identify the handwriting, signature, seal,
letterhead, watermark. If it’s unfamiliar, it is compared
with authenticated specimens.

Isographies
Dictionaries of biography giving examples of handwriting

Paleography
Study of ancient writing systems and the deciphering and
dating of historical manuscripts.

Diplomatics
Deals with the process of determining whether a
document is authentic or a forgery through a detailed
examination of internal and external characteristics.

Paleography and diplomatics

Handwriting, style, form were conventionalized
Founded in 17th century by Dom Jean Mabillon, a French
Benedictine monk and scholar of Congregation of Saint
Maur.

Seals
Subject of study by sigillographers

Anachronistic styles
Can be detected by specialists in contemporary writing
It can detect unhistoric spelling and grammar

Anachronistic references to events

Too early, too late, or too remote
Dating of a document at a time when the alleged writer
could not possibly have been at the place designated
(alibi) which uncovers fraud

The skillful forger can carefully follow historical sources

and his forged product can become too obvious to be a
copy in certain passages. By skillful paraphrase and
invention, the absence of trivia and otherwise unknown
details make it obvious to forgery.

The historical document should be placed where it ought

to be (provenance) to create a presumption of
genuineness

CONTENT AND CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Historical method
The process of critically examining the records and
survivals of the past
Skills in interpretation of facts and critical analysis of
historical narrative or accounts is needed

Content Analysis
Systematic evaluation of the primary source, that in
process, we could develop and present an argument
based on our understanding of the evidences