WHAT IS HISTORY?
| By the end of the subtopic, learners should be able to: |
- Define history.
- Outline reasons for studying history
- Discuss advantages and disadvantages of sources of history.
|
| history looks at the: |
| PAST |
| PRESENT |
| FUTURE |
- History is the study of the past events of the development of human societies.
- It is the study of past events with attention to the activities of human beings over time.
- History is a record of what happened in the past.
- History, therefore, becomes a branch of knowledge that records what happened in the past.
Reasons for studying history
- History helps us to understand the world as it is today.
- History helps us to understand the present life and infer into the future.
- It helps us to understand the beliefs, values and culture of different societies.
- It helps people to know their identity.
- It helps us to know our friends and enemies.
- It helps us to understand how laws are made.
- It teaches us about the way of life of different people, as shown below.
Evidence in history
- Historians make use of historical evidence when putting the history together.
- They make use of different sources of history to provide adequate evidence.
- The evidence provided enables them to put forward what exactly happened in the past.
There are three main sources of history which
are:
- Written records
- Oral tradition
- Archaeology
- Other sources include pictures, languages and art.
- Written records are pieces of information that were written down a long time ago.
- These records include both published and unpublished works.
- Published work (Secondary sources) includes documents that have been edited and produced for the public.
- These could be in the form of books, newspapers and magazines.
- Unpublished work includes the documents that are private and written by hand such as diaries and letters.
- These documents are also known as Primary sources.
- Written records are used by historians to write the history of a certain group of people.
- Written records can be used with other sources.
- Written records are reliable and are based on eye witness account.
Advantages of written records
- It is a permanent record that can be kept from generation to generations.
- Most important dates are recorded.
- Information cannot be changed because the information is written down.
- Information can reach many people through reading.
- It can be safely kept in archives.
Disadvantages of written records
- The information may be biased if the writer includes his or her own opinion when writing.
- They can be destroyed by fire.
- Written records cannot be used by illiterate people.
Oral Tradition
- Oral tradition refers to the passing on of information from one generation to the other by word of mouth.
- Oral tradition may be in the form of:
| FORMS OF ORAL TRADITION |
| Memoirs |
| Proverbs and Idioms |
| Poems and Songs |
| Myths and Tales |
- Memoirs are short accounts of one's history.
- People narrate what they remember about their own lives.
- Historians record the account by a tape recorder, writing it down or make a film about that incident.
- Poems and songs learnt from older people recognize the deeds of some rulers and their ancestors.
- There are also myths and tales about people and places.
- Myths and tales attempt to explain the culture of a society and their religion.
- Proverbs and idioms are other forms of oral tradition.
- They take note of unique events that include drought, floods, locusts and so on.
Advantages of oral tradition
- Some of the advantages of oral traditions are:
- Oral traditions do not need a person to know how to read and write.
- Historians get first-hand information from the people.
- Information is easy to collect.
- Historians can interview people anywhere and at any time.
Disadvantages of oral tradition
- Some of the disadvantages of oral traditions are:
- Information can be distorted if it is exaggerated.
- People interviewed may not remember dates and other important information.
- Oral traditions may not give information very far in the past.
- Information given depends on the memory of the person giving information.
Archaeology
- Archaeology is the study of remains from the past.
- Archaeologists dig artifacts from the ground and study them.
- Artifacts include bones, iron tools, stone tools, old pottery, pieces of cloth and many others.
- Artifacts dug usually point to a way of life of a certain group of people.
- Archaeologists interpret the age and use of the artifacts dug through carbon dating.
- They make use of modern day scientific equipment to establish the age of the remains.
- They can also tell how long people lived in an area.
- In Zimbabwe, some of the artifacts were dug at some stone ruins such as Great Zimbabwe and Khami ruins.
- Archaeology can give useful information such as:
- How people dressed.
- How they got their food.
- The type of tools they used.
- The type of animals they kept.
Advantages of archaeology
- Some of the advantages of archaeology are:
- Archaeology presents physical evidence.
- Age of artifacts is established.
- Archaeology can be used with other sources.
Disadvantages of archaeology
- The following are some of the disadvantages of archaeology:
- It can be done by a trained person only that is an archaeologist.
- It cannot give real history as it is based on materials only.
- It cannot show traditions of people under study.
- It is expensive as there is a need for advanced equipment.
- Other sources such as pictures, language and art can help in the collection of historical information.
- Pictures such as rock paintings provide information on the way of life of people long ago.
Summary
- History is the study of the past.
- People study history in order to understand the beliefs, values and culture of different societies.
- Historians use sources of history such as written records, oral traditions and archaeology to provide historical information.
