My first discussion in this new semester! Hist 294: Historiography
What are the various ways we can
define history?
How and why can the definition of
history change?
To define history
would be to define humankind, an impossible task. To start in a rudimentary
way, the word history itself stems from a Greek word and it means, “Learning
through Inquiry”.[1]
Over time the definition of history has changed and evolved, just as those who
create it, study it, and live it. History has been documented since the dawn of
time, in people’s on way of course, whether being passed down by word of mouth
or written down in historical texts, drawn on walls, tablets and fabrics and
more recently blogs, webpages, and social media. The AHA, American Historical
Association, defines history as, “The never ending process whereby people seek
to understand the past and its many meanings”.[2] Most
importantly, the most crucial part of defining history depends on the person
who is defining it. Your personal beliefs, philosophies, culture, religion,
gender, age, and many other factors come into account when you are setting the
boundaries for what history means to you.
There seem to be two
major views when defining what history is and how people study it, to over
simplify both; the chronicled and the scientific. In early humankind history
was told through stories but as our species and our intellect grew, so did out
need for proof and facts.
The first view uses a
less ‘scientific’ approach to history. The historians that use this method aren’t
specifically interested or dominated by ‘sources’. Mythopoetic narratives are poems,
stories, songs, and all nature of ‘handed down’ history. They are dominated by
celestial beings, historical heroes, important political figures and all manner
of bold and interesting tales and people. These narratives do not include scientific
proof or evidence for their history, they are peoples way of explaining their
past and present. An important and popular example would be the bible. There
are three primary features of mythopoetic narratives; a mythical view of space
and time, a belief in the eternal recurrence of ‘cycles’ of events, and the
absence of any notion of the historic capacity of man to fashion what we call
‘progress’.[3]
Our History and Historians book
mentions, “That although definitions and points of emphasis have changed
overtime, written narratives have always centered on human affairs and
purportedly set forth truths.”[4]
While although in present times history is seen as more of a science, stories
and tales of important people and places will continue to rise to legends
because we are a species of dreamers, artists, and romantics.
In Europe and America after the
Renaissance the view of history began to evolve and with more open minds and
new interests in math and science the definition of history changed. It “became
the study of how humankind had changed and progressed in linear fashion
throughout the ages”.[5] Historians
began using the historical method in their research and study. The historical
method is similar to the scientific method whereas you create a hypothesis, use
sources, analyze and study those sources, and use that information to answer
your hypothesis. History became a science, and to this day without sources,
facts, and proof your hypotheses will be mute and disregarded very quickly. It
will be nothing more than fiction.
History has evolved many times
throughout the course of human existence, and I am absolutely sure that it will
endure more change in the future. As humankind grows and evolves so will the
means by which we study it. If you were to go back in time and show early
historians that we can from comfort of our own homes on magical picture boxes
from states and continents away from one another, debate the definition of
history, they would agree on how far we have come also.
Bibliography:
Gilderhus,
Mark T. History
and Historians: A Historiographical Introduction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010.
Hoefferle,
Caroline. The Essential Historiography
Reader. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010.
[1]
Caroline
Hoefferle, The Essential Historiography
Reader (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011), 3.
[2] Hoefferle, The Essential Historiography Reader,
3-4.
[3] Hoefferle, The Essential Historiography Reader, 5.
[4] Mark T.
Gilderhus, History and Historians: A
Historiographical Introduction (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall,
2010), 4.
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