1: The Meaning of History, Sources of
Historical Data and Historical Criticisms
Lesson 1: The Meaning of History
The Limitation of Historical Knowledge
History as the Subjective Process of Re-creation
Historical Method and Historiography
Lesson 2: Sources of Historical Data
Written Sources of History
Non-written Sources of History
Primary versus Secondary Sources
Lesson 3: Historical Criticisms
Test of Authenticity
Sources of Historical Data
Historical Data are sourced from artifacts have been left by the past. These artifacts can either be relics or
remains, or the testimonies of witnesses to the past. Thus, historical sources are those materials from which the
historians construct meaning.
Relics or “remains” – whose existence offer researchers a clue about the past, for example, the relics or remains
of a prehistoric settlement. Artifacts can be found where relics of human happenings can be found, for example, a
potsherd, a coin, a ruin, a manuscript, a book, a portrait, a stamp, a piece of wreckage, a strand of hair, or other
archaeological or anthropological remains. These objects, however, are never the happenings or the events; if
written documents, they are materials out of which history may be written (Howell and Prevenier, 2001).
Testimonies of witnesses , whether oral or written, may have
been created to serve as records or they might have been created
for some other purposes. All these describe an event, such as the record
of a property exchange, speeches, and commentaries.
Written Sources of History
Written sources are usually categorized in three ways:
1. Narrative or literary – these are chronicles or tracts presented in narrative form, written to impart a message
whose motives for their composition vary widely. For example, a scientific tract is typically composed in order
to inform contemporaries or succeeding generations; a newspaper article might be intended to shape opinion;
the so-called ego document or personal narrative such as a diary or memoir might be composed in order to
persuade readers of the justice of the author’s actions; a novel or film might be made to entertain, to deliver a
moral teaching, or to further a religious cause; a biography might be written in praise of the subject’s worth
and achievements (a panegyric, a public speech or published text in praise of someone or something, or
hagiography, the writing of the lives of saints). A narrative source is therefore broader than what is usually
considered fiction. (Howell & Prevenier, 2001)
Written Sources of History
Written sources are usually categorized in three ways:
2. Diplomatic Sources – are understood to be those which document / record an existing legal situation or create
a new one, and it is these kinds of sources that professional historians once treated as the purest, the “best”
source. The classic diplomatic source is the charter, which a legal instrument. A legal document is usually
sealed or authenticated to provide evidence that a legal transaction has been completed and can be used as
evidence in a judicial proceeding in case of dispute. Scholars differentiate those legal instruments issued by
public authorities (such as kings or popes, the Supreme Court and Congress) from those involving only
private parties ( such as will or mortgage agreement). Diplomatic sources possess specific formal properties,
such as hand and print style, the ink, the seal, for external properties and rhetorical devices and images for
internal properties, which are determined by the norm of laws
and by tradition. Such characters also vary in time (each
generation has its own norms) and according to origin (each
bureaucracy has its own traditions).
Written Sources of History
Written sources are usually categorized in three ways:
3. Social Documents– are information pertaining to economic, social, political, or judicial significance. They are
records kept by bureaucracies. A few examples are government reports, such as municipal accounts, research
findings, and documents like these parliamentary procedures, civil registry records, property registers, and
records of census.
Non-Written Sources of History
Unwritten sources are as essential as written sources. There are two types: the material evidence and oral
evidence.
1. Material Evidence – also known as archaeological evidence – it is one of the most important unwritten evidences.
This include artistic creations such as pottery, jewelry, dwellings, graves, churches, roads, and others that tell a
story about the past. These artifacts can tell a great deal about the ways of life of people in the past, and their
culture. These artifacts can also reveal a great deal about the socio-cultural interconnections of the different
groups of people especially when an object is unearthed in more than one place. Commercial exchange may also
be revealed by the presence of artifacts in different places. Even places that are thought to be insignificant, such
as garbage pits, can provide valuable information to historians as these can be traces of a former settlement.
2. Oral Evidence - also an important source of information for
historians. Much are told by the tales or sagas of ancient peoples
and the folk songs or popular rituals from the premodern period of
Philippine history. During the present age, interviews is another
major form of oral evidence.
Primary Versus Secondary Sources
There are two general kinds of historical sources: direct or primary and indirect or
secondary.
1. Primary sources – are original, first-hand account of an event or period that are usually
written or made during or close to the event or period. These sources are original and
factual, not interpretative. Their key function is to provide facts. Examples of primary
sources are diaries, journals, letters, newspaper and magazine articles (factual accounts),
government records (census, marriage, military), photographs, maps, postcards, posters,
recorded or transcribed speeches, interviews with participants or witnesses, interviews
with people who lived during a certain time, songs, plays, novels, stories, paintings,
drawings and sculptures.
Primary Versus Secondary Sources
There are two general kinds of historical sources: direct or primary and
indirect or secondary.
2. Secondary Sources – are materials made by people long after the events being
described had taken place to provide valuable interpretations of historical
events. A secondary source analyses and interprets primary sources. It is an
interpretation of second-hand account of a historical event. Examples of
secondary sources are biographies, histories, literary criticism, books written by
a third party about a historical event, art and theatre reviews, newspaper or
journal articles that interpret.
Thank You.
Karen S. Cruz, LPT
Instructor – GEC 102
