Readings in Philippine History
Module 2
College of Arts and Sciences
Session Topics:
• Historical Methodology
• Components in Historical Method
• Content and Contextual Analysis
Historical methodology – is comprised of certain techniques and
rules that historians follow in order to properly cite sources and
historical evidences in writing history.
“ Ethnic History of the Ifugaos in the Cordilleras during American occupation”
Historian needs to validate the claims of his informant through comparing and
corroborating it with written sources.
Historical methodology – is comprised of certain techniques and
rules that historians follow in order to properly cite sources and
historical evidences in writing history.
“ Ethnic History of the Ifugaos in the Cordilleras during American occupation”
Historian needs to validate the claims of his informant through comparing and
corroborating it with written sources.
Components in Historical Method:
External criticism – aims at checking the authenticity of the
primary source; it aims to check whether the source is fake or not.
Considerations:
Examining the physical characteristics
Accuracy with the historical characteristics of the time it was produced
Materials used for the evidence
Ex. Quality of the paper, type of the ink used
language and words used in the material
Internal criticism – is the examination of the truthfulness of the evidence.
It looks at the truthfulness and factuality of the evidence by looking at:
- author of the source
- its context
- agenda behind its creation
- knowledge which informed it
- intended purpose
“ Without thorough criticism of evidences, historical deceptions and
lies will be highly probable”
Scandalous cases of deception:
Code of Kalantiaw
• Pre – colonial document until 1968, American scholar William
Henry Scott debunked the authenticity due to anachronism
and lack of evidence.
Ferdinand Marcos as WWII decorated soldier
• Disproven when historian counterchecked with the war
records of US.
Checking the authenticity of the primary source:
Historical Method
• External and internal criticism
• Internal criticism:
- How close was the author to the event being studied?
- When was the account made?
- Who was the recipient of the account?
- Is there bias to be accounted for?
- Does informed common sense make the account probable?
- Is the account corroborated by other accounts?
Task of Historian:
1. To look at the available historical sources and select the most
relevant and meaningful for the history and subject matter
that he is studying.
2. To organize the past that is being created so that it can offer
lessons for nations, societies and the civilization.
3. To seek for the meaning of recovering the past to let the
people see the continuing relevance of the provenance,
memory , remembering and historical understanding for both
the present and the future.
Content and Contextual Analysis
Content Analysis
• Effective technique in using primary sources to enrich history
and to introduce practical social science research (Gustafson,
2010)
• Useful in analyzing visual or verbal materials. Can be used to
analyze documents, excerpts of works, pictures, and
illustrations
Ten Steps Content Analysis
1) Copy and read through the transcript - make brief notes in the margin when
interesting or relevant information is found
2) Go through the notes made in the margins and list the different types of information
found
3) Read through the list and categorise each item in a way that offers a description of
what it is about
4) Identify whether or not the categories can be linked any way and list them as major
categories (or themes) and / or minor categories (or themes)
5) Compare and contrast the various major and minor categories
6) If there is more than one transcript, repeat the first five stages again for each
transcript
Ten Steps in Writing Content Analysis
7) When you have done the above with all of the transcripts, collect all of the
categories or themes and examine each in detail and consider if it fits and its relevance
8) Once all the transcript data is categorised into minor and major categories/themes,
review in order to ensure that the information is categorised as it should be.
9) Review all of the categories and ascertain whether some categories can be merged
or if some need to them be sub-categorised
10) Return to the original transcripts and ensure that all the information that needs to
be categorised has been so.
The process of content analysis is lengthy and may require the researcher to go over
and over the data to ensure they have done a thorough job of analysis
Sample Method
of Content
Analysis
Contextual Analysis
• Refers to the social, religious, economic, and political
conditions that existed during a certain time and place.
• Details that surround an occurrence: time and place in
which a situation occurs
• Enable us to interpret and analyze works or events of the
past, or even the future, rather than merely judge them
by contemporary standards
Contextual analysis should contain the following items:
i)The historical content or the source (time & place it was
written and the situation)
(ii) The authors background, intent and authority of the subject
(iii) The source’s relevance and meaning today
Example
Espana y Filipinas
(Spain and the Philippines)
Juan Luna, 1886
End
Performance Task 1
Content and Contextual Analysis
Co
Thank you for listening!!!!
