MIDTERM: History and Historiography Flashcards
Histography
The process of writing, analyzing, and interpreting history.
Foundation: primary and secondary sources
History (Josh, 2016)
- objective discipline
- It is the recreation of past events in chronological order (although it can also be arranged thematically).
- It is a record of the past = relies on historical facts
Kasaysayan
- subjective discipline
- “Isang salaysay na may saysay sa mga taong sinasaysayan nito” (Salazar, 1989)
- narrative of the past
- history has a story
- a perspective or point of view is used (it can be both subjective and objective)
Historians
- Those who apply the historiographic method in analyzing a society.
- They present and scrutinize historical facts to recreate and interpret past events.
Social Historians
those that narrated the experiences of a specific group.
Local Historians
those that frame narratives based on the local context.
Political Historians
those that look into the power dynamics.
Economic Historians
those that analyze how resources are produced and distributed.
Cultural Historians
those that explore the evolution of norms and how it impacts social relations.
Historiographic Method
history should be based on facts supported by historical data
Historical Facts
- objective
- Historical data is taken from the analysis of historical sources (batis pangkasaysayan).
Primary Sources
- First-hand Accounts of Events. (Artifacts, Photographs, Audio/Video Recordings, Journals, Speeches, Newspapers, Government Papers)
- Historians always prioritize the use of primary sources and only rely on secondary sources if the primary ones are not available.
- You shouldn’t believe all that you see in primary sources (there can be propaganda + nostalgia)
Secondary Source
- Annotations, commentaries, and interpretations of primary sources
- Used to support the primary source
- Can also be used when a historian cannot get a primary source (locator or reference)
Are the classifications of sources fixed and predetermined?
- no
- classification depends on the topic which you are researching about
- changing your topic impacts your classification
- a historian must always explain and defend why he classified a source as primary.
Historical Imagination
- subjective
- it is the insertion of a historian’s subjectivity to the historical narrative.
- The subjectivity of a historian shapes a narrative, thus, some historians may contradict each other.
- It is the bridge between two historical facts
This fills in the gaps between historical facts - Imagination must NEVER contradict established historical facts.
Historical Imagination
- subjective
- it is the insertion of a historian’s subjectivity to the historical narrative.
- The subjectivity of a historian shapes a narrative, thus, some historians may contradict each other.
- It is the bridge between two historical facts
This fills in the gaps between historical facts - Imagination must NEVER contradict established historical facts.
Negative Revisionism
- a result of relying on resources that are not properly peer-reviewed or do not have a proper historical inquiry
Revisionism
- Narratives use Historical Facts
- When narratives are revised, revisions need to show their historical facts.
- Revisions are ok as long as it doesn’t go against historical facts
External Historical Criticism
- The process of checking the Authenticity of a primary source.
Remember a historian always conducts external criticism first followed by internal criticism.
Questions:
Does the source come from the period/timeframe it alludes to?
Does it use established historical facts about the timeframe (language, photographic format)
Internal Historical Criticism
- Checking the Reliability of the source through the identification of biases.
- You have to understand the intention of the author in writing
Questions:
What are the potential biases embedded in the source?
Analysis of Sources: Content
- analyzing the content of a document
Process: Raw Document»_space;> Transcribe»_space;> Translate = Content
Question:
What are the narratives, ideas, concepts, etc. embedded within the source?
Analysis of Sources: Context
- After providing context, a historian must look for patterns in the document to establish its themes. You can then establish the primary message/idea of a written document from these themes.
- sources must be analyzed using the circumstances of their time.
Process: Content»_space;> Context
Question:
How do the narratives, concepts, and ideas relate to the reality of the historical period?
Process of Writing History
- Select sources
- Classify sources into primary and secondary sources
- Authenticate the source through external criticism
- Check the reliability of the information given through internal criticism
- Analyze your sources
- Write and report your findings
Imagined Nation
- Benedict Anderson
- a nation is an IMAGINED POLITICAL COMMUNITY that is both limited and sovereign
- Emerged because of print capitalism (read the same news, watch same television shows, hear same stories or myths = shared belief)
Imagined = members cannot all know each other.
Limited = no nation encompasses all of mankind
Sovereign = nations came into being during Enlightenment and for freedom\
Community = a nation is conceived of as a horizontal comradeship of equals
History In Nationalism
- History guides us about what kind of nation we will be, what is our identity today, and what is the foundation of the identity of Filipinos today.
- What you remember history to be, defines your nationalism.
“Nationalisms” = iba-iba yung idea natin of what nationalism is in different parts of the Philippines
Institutional Memory
- bounds a nation
- is a collective set of facts, concepts, experiences and knowledge held by a group of people.
Official Nationalism
- the specific narrative is given by the state
- This is state-sponsored (the reason why everyone studies Rizal/Bonifacio and the Spanish colonization)
- similar memory of history = unity
- this narrative gives the state some form of legitimacy
