Thursday, November 13, 2014

How can you define History?

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.
[5] Hoefferle, The Essential Historiography Reader, 6.

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