GE HIS | READINGS IN THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLE STUDIES

Defini7ons and Subject MaBer

- History has always been known as the study of the past. Students of general educa:on o;en
dread the subject for its notoriety in requiring them to memorize dates, places, names, and
events from distant eras. This low apprecia:on of the discipline may be noted from the
shallow understanding of history’s relevance to their lives and to their respec:ve context.
While the popular defini:on of history as the study and its importance to human civiliza:on.

OLD Meaning of History

Ò Study of the past
Ò A record of the past events
Ò Comes from the la:n word “Historia” it means “knowledge acquired through inquiry”

The Modern Meaning of History

Ò Reconstruc:on of the past based on writer records, cultural ar:facts, folk tradi:on,
historical evidences and relics.

Why was there a shiI in the meaning?

- The no:ceable shi; in meaning was a result of the K-12 movement that has great effect on
the General Educa:on Curriculum. The said memorandum mandated that Readings in
Philippine History would include topics on Agrarian Land Reform, Taxa:on, and Philippine
Cons:tu:on to be included in the curriculum for Readings in Philippine History. The most
recent is the inclusion of Indigenous people studies and the Muslim culture in the General
Educa:on Curriculum Readings in Philippine History. Indigenous people are those who
managed to preserve their culture despite the modern technologies, most of the :me these
groups are faced with low literacy rate, o;en they are marginalized in society due to poverty.

What were the Problems with the old meaning of history?

- It propagated the maxim “No Record, No History”. In reality, not all events that transpired
were recorded as it occurred way before any means of recording were ever developed.
Most recordings were made to favor someone or were paid to be made.

- Example: The King of Spain tasked the nobleman Antonio Pigafe7a to record all of the
ac:vi:es done by Ferdinand Magellan, it was biased to show that Spain was graceful to
“all the people were bap:zed, and built the church of Christ and that is the beginning of
our catholic life”.

Most of the recorded history were biased or wri1en in favor of someone.

- The diary of Antonio PigafeWa was funded by King Philip of Spain, it is for this reason that
the wri:ngs were favorable to the “poor uneducated na:ves” narra:ve wri:ng, this style
of wri:ng jus:fies the discovery of islands in favor Spain by propaga:ng their “Chris:an
obliga:on to spread Chris:anity”.
Is there such thing as a TRUE HISTORY?
- Considering that history can be biased in favor of someone or a par:cular group, it is
difficult to determine what is the TRUE history? We can then determine true history only
by studying HISTORIA.

- Historia is the study of history. We focus on the context or :me period of the study of
history, and for whom it was wriWen and why.

TOOLS USED IN HISTORIA.

1. The view points
- We study history based on a point of view of a group.

É Colonialism – The cultural iden:fy and beliefs were given by invading na:ons.
Spaniards to Pinoy: “Wala caio cultura, bibigyan naming caio!”
“Wala caio :wala sa DIYOS na si Hesu Cristo, i-bap:ze namin kayo bilang Katoliko”

É Post-Colonialism – is an instance when the “discovered islands” try to preserve

and show their dis:nct iden:ty, in this scenario we revert back to our old ways like
making babayin more popular in the modern world.

2. Posi:vism
- requires that knowledge must be empirical and evidence that is
observable evidences. It is from this school of thought came the dictum “No
evidence, No history”.

3. Other evidences
- Example: Cultural artefacts, relics, tradi:on, folklore, mythology.

Why is history a difficult subject?

1. We can’t go back to the past and relieve history.
2. Facts can’t speak nor give us the true events.
3. Subjec:ve nature of history.
- This means history varies from person to person, subjec:ve means feelings and opinion
can affect history, a Marcos supporter would highlight the economic gains made under
Pres. Ferdinand while an Aquino supporter would show the various unexplained arrest,
deaths and human right viola:on done during the mar:al law era; whereas in educa:on
subjec:ve may refer to an answer that changes while objec:ve is one where the answer
remains constant like the answer of 2+2+4.

The requirements in the study of History

- Rigor. It is defined as the strict precision; in history this refers to absolute certainty.
 - Research tradi:on. Certain format, styles and rules has to be followed when wri:ng
historical research.

- Scien:fic methodologies. Iden:fying the problem, making a hypothesis, experiment and

make a conclusion.

Classifica7on of historical sources

- Primary sources: sources produced during the same period of what as under study. We
can consider even fist hand informa:on coming from witnesses provided these sources
were made at the same :me frame.
In example, if one wanted to study the life Jose Rizal, we could use the le7ers of Rizal.
The problem with primary sources? They are not accessible and readily available in local
bookstores and library since they are preserved at the Na:onal Historical Commission of
the Philippines.

- Secondary sources: made by an author using primary source material. In short, historical
sources that records a par:cular person or era. Examples of these: The History of the
Filipino Na:on by Gregorio Zaide and Sonia Zaide; Rizal without the overcoat by Ambeth
Ocampo. These sources are readily available in libraries and book stores.

- Ter7ary sources. These are informa:on coming from third hand informa:on with no
verifiable sources like YouTube videos claiming that Marcos was the greatest president we
ever had or that Ninoy Aquino’s death was “ordered” by the Cojuangco.

Classifica7on of historical sources

- External cri:cism: is the prac:ce of verifying the authen:city of the evidence by examining
its physical characteris:cs; consistency with the historical characteris:c of the :me when
it was produced; and the materials used for the evidence.

- Internal cri:cism: is the examina:on of the truthfulness of the evidence. It looks content
of the source and examines the circumstances of its produc:on.

Task of Historians
1. The task of the historian is to look at the available historical sources and select the most
relevant and meaningful for history and for the subject maWer that he is studying history.
2. The task of the historian is to organize the past that is being created so that it can offer
lessons for na:ons, socie:es, and civiliza:on.
3. It is the historian’s job to seek for the meaning of recovering the past to let the people see
the con:nuing relevance of provenance, memory, remembering, and historical
understanding for both and the future.
Doing History
- It is not enough that we know our history. We must also realize that as agents of social
change, we can contribute to the narra:ve of the na:on by par:cipa:ng in wri:ng about
our past and our present. Special aWen:on will be given to doing online research,
library/archival research, biographies/ life history, and local/ oral history.

Doing Historical Research Online

- Internet: becomes the primary mean by which anyone would find and informa:on that
they need. In fact it would be easy to get lost in all the data available.

- Cyberspace: great resource for research if you know how to use it properly. Treat anything
you find online as a source and use the dame historical methods you have learned to
analyze the data you get online.

- Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) or Google (www.google.com) a combina:on of the words that

you use to come up with relevant results and lead you to what you are looking for. The
more refined your research string is, the more definite and refined the results will be.

- Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org) is the oldest digital library in the world, founded
in 1971. It has more than 50,000 items in its collec:on, which include many works
concerning the Philippines.

- Archive (www.archive.org) an online library that originally sought to archive web history,
but grew later on to provide digital versions of other works.

- Philippine government websites (www.org.ph) sources may be used for historical

research, especially on laws and other government issuances that may be useful when
doing topics of a more contemporary period.

Doing Historical Research in Libraries and Archives

- Research in libraries and archives is necessary in the study of history as these are
repositories of primary and secondary sources that allow us to create narra:ves of the
past through accepted methods of historical scholarship. Students are usually expected
to write historical essays and or historical research papers, and this entails the collec:on
of data through primary sources.
- Libraries and archives s:ll provide more variety of sources in different formats such as
books, journals ar:cles, newspapers, magazines, photographs, and even audio and video
recordings.
- Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC)list of sources, primary and secondary, to aid in
crea:ng as preliminary biography that you may later on access physically in the holdings
of the library. The catalog lists down all kinds of materials available based on the subject
used in the research. These could be books, journals, maps, and other materials that fit
what you might look for.
Doing Life Histories and Biographical Research
- Studying the life of an individual is o;en incidental to a greater event that has been
significant to the life of a larger unit that he or she happened to contribute to. However,
students of history should realize that the individual is a significant contributor to various
historical breakthroughs across periods of :me. Individuals can span centuries and
genera:ons. Individuals can also influence large spaces and many places.

- Jose Rizal, on the other hand, influenced many genera:ons of Filipinos. His novels inspired
radical Filipinos to fight the colonizers, and his death was seen as the :pping point of the
revolu:on. However, his influence was limited to the Philippines.

- History has proven that their lives, their exploits, and their legacies had a huge impact in
the society where they belonged. The wri:ng of life history should not be limited to great
individuals like heroes, prophets, or world leaders. Ordinary individuals should also be
able to locate themselves in the pages of history.

- Mutual cons:tu:on between history and biography, however doing life history is not an
easy task. The researcher should be able to iden:fy different factors that affected the life
of the person he is trying to study.

- The life of historian or the biographer should iden:fy aspects of the individual’s life in
order to properly historicize his life.

- Other aspects that may be studied in order to come up with a deeper life history are
sector, ethnic group, and culture, Zooming out to the na:onal history of the country where
the individual iden:fies with is also helpful.

Doing Local and Oral History

- Local history is the study of the history of a par:cular community or a smaller unit of
geography. Local historians study the history of local ins:tu:ons like churches. They also
study economies, local heroes, and local events. This is also a broad and dynamic field of
inquiry that aims to have an in-depth understanding of certain locale.

Why do we study and do local history?

- Memory is important in forging of na:onal unity through with a common collec:ve of
past.

- Local history can serve as a balancer of these tendencies by showing the peculiari:es in
certain locales in a par:cular na:on, region or con:nent.

- Studying local history can provide new alterna:ve interpreta:ons on the different aspects
of na:on’s history.
 - Local history is not just aimed at opposing the discourse in the na:onal histories but is
also a tool of enriching these na:onal narra:ves.

Oral history
- this nature and defini:on caused posi:vist historians or those who subscribe to the belief
that history should be primarily based on wriWen documents to cri:cize the methods of
oral history.

Oral History
- This method uses oral account of historical subjects, witnesses, members of the
communi:es and the like.

- Is important in the midst of scarcity in wriWen sources, historical documents, and other
material evidences.

- Memory is seen as something that is faulty and inaccurate. At best, posi:vist historians
see oral accounts as mere supplement to the history wriWen from wriWen documents.

- It is the task of the historian to search for alterna:ve methods that will capture the
experience and collec:ve pasts of these communi:es. Oral history plays this role.