1.1 Sources of Historical Data

• Written sources of history

  • Narrative or Literature
  • Diplomatic or Juridical
  • Social Documents
• Narrative or Literature


  Chronicles or tracts presented in narrative form, written to impart a message whose motives for their composition vary widely
• Narrative or Literature

  • Scientific tract
  • Newspaper article
  • Ego document or personal narrative (diary, memoir)
  • Novel
  • Film
  • Biography
• Diplomatic or Juridical


  Documents that record or create a legal situation, and are usually sealed or authenticated
• Social Documents


  Information pertaining to economic, social, political or judicial significance – records kept by bureaucracies
• Social Documents

  • Government reports
  • Research findings
  • Records of census
• Non-written sources of history

  • Material or Archeological Evidence
  • Oral Evidence
• Material or Archeological Evidence


  Artistic creations such as poetry, jewelry, dwelling, graves, churches, roads
• Oral Evidence


  Tales, sagas, folk songs, popular rituals from the pre-modern period, interviews in the present age
• Oral Evidence

  • Alamat ng Bulkang Mayon
  • Si Malakas at si Maganda
  • The Story of Ten Thousand Hills (Bohol)
  • Bakunawa
  • Tale of Sierra Madre
• Primary Sources


  Original, first-hand account of an event or period, usually written or made during or close to the event or period, factual and not interpretative
• Primary Sources

  • Diaries, journals, letters, newspapers, magazine articles (factual accounts), government records, photographs, maps, recorded or transcribed speeches, interviews
• Secondary Sources

  Materials made by people long after the events being described had taken place, to provide valuable interpretations of historical events, analyzes and interprets primary sources
• Secondary Sources

  • Biographies, histories, literary criticism, books written by a third party about a historical event
• Advantages of Primary Sources

  • Provide unfiltered access to the record of artistic, social, scientific and political thought and achievement during the specific period under study, produced by people who lived during that period
  • Can give a very real sense of what is was like to be alive during a long-past era
• Disadvantages of Primary Sources

  • Often incomplete and have little context, students must use prior knowledge and work with multiple primary sources to find patterns
  • Analyzing primary sources involves moving from concrete observations and facts to questioning and making inferences about the materials
• Advantages of Secondary Sources

  • Can provide analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of the original information
  • Best for uncovering background or historical information about a topic and broadening understanding by exposing to others' perspectives, interpretations, and conclusions
  • Allows readers to get expert views of events and often bring together multiple primary sources relevant to the subject matters
• Disadvantages of Secondary Sources

  • Reliability and validity are open to question, often do not provide exact information
  • Do not represent first hand knowledge of a subject or event
  • Countless books, journals magazine articles, and web pages that attempt to interpret the past, finding good secondary sources can be an issue
• Historical criticism


  Examines the origins of earliest text to appreciate the underlying circumstances upon which the text came to be, with two goals: 1) discover the original meaning of the text in its primitive or historical context and its literal sense, 2) establish a reconstruction of the historical situation of the author and recipients of the text
• Types of historical criticism

  • External criticism
  • Internal criticism
• External criticism


  Determines the authenticity of the source, by investigating the origin of the material, its author, and the sources of information used, based on the time and place it is written
• Internal criticism


  Determines the historicity of the facts contained in the document, by testing the facts before admitting any conclusion pertaining to it