Lesson 2.1: Historical Method: Historical Sources; Historical Criticism Flashcards
T or F: The historian is many times removed from the events under investigation
True
T or F: Historians rely on surviving records
True
T or F: Historians do not have to verify sources, to date them, locate their place of origin and
identify their intended functions
False
The process of critically examining and analyzing the records and survivals of the past
Historical Method
An object from the past or testimony concerning the past on which historians depend in order to create their own depiction of that past.
Sources
Are tangible remains of the past
Sources
What are written sources?
- Published materials
- Manuscript
Must have been produced by a contemporary of the event it narrates. Are also considered as testimony of an eye witness.
Primary source
What are non-written sources?
- Oral history
- Artifact
- Ruins
- Fossils
- Artworks
- Video recordings
- Audio recordings
Is a document or physical
object which was written or created during the time under study.
Primary source
These sources were present during an experience or time period and offer an inside view of a particular event.
Primary Sources
Are characterized by their
content, regardless of whether they are available in original format, in microfilm/microfiche, in digital format, or in published format.
Primary sources
Four main categories of primary sources
- Written sources
- Images
- Artifacts
- Oral testimony
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.
Secondary sources
Verisimilitude
Truth, authenticity, plausibility
Process of critically examining and analyzing the records and survivals of the past.
Historical method
Imaginative reconstruction of the past from the data
derived by that process.
Historiography
Is also important element of historical method.
Historical analysis
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.
Historical data
T or F: Relics or “remains”- whose existence offer researchers a clue
about the past.
True
Whether oral or written, may have been created to serve as
records or they might have been created for some other purposes.
Testimonies of witnesses
The becoming
Dynamic or genetic
The being
Static
Explaining why and how things
happened and were interrelated
Interpretative
Telling what happened, when and where, and who took part
Descriptive
Kinds of written sources
- Narrative or literary
- Diplomatic or juridical
- Social documents
Non-written sources
Material evidence; oral evidence
In order for a source to be used as evidence in history, basic matters about its form and content must be settled:
- External criticism
- Internal criticism
Determines the historicity of facts contained in the document.
internal criticism
The value of facts, the character of the sources, the knowledge of author, and the influences
prevalent at the time of writing must be carefully investigated.
Internal criticism
The problem of authenticity; To spot fabricated, forged, faked
documents; To distinguish a hoax or misrepresentation
External criticism
Determine the date of the document to see whether they are anachronistic
Test of authenticity
A systematic evaluation of the primary source be it a text, painting, caricature, and /or speech that in the process students could develop and
present an argument based on their own understanding of the evidences from their readings.
Content analysis
Considers specifically the time, place and situation when the primary source was written.
Contextual analysis
The analysis as well includes the author’s background, authority on the subject, and intent
perceptible, and its relevance and meaning to people and society today.
Contextual analysis
