History
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Most of early history was passed on through oral tradition and hand-written documents.
{{Historyportal}}
History is the study of the past, particularly the
written record(1) of the
human race, but more generally including
scientific and archaeological discoveries about the past. Recently, there has been an increased interest in
oral histories and
traditions, passed down from generation to generation verbally. New technology, such as
photography,
sound recording, and
motion pictures, now complement the
written word in the
historical record. History is a field of
research producing a continuous
narrative and a systematic
analysis of past events of importance to the
human race.
(2) Those who study history as a
profession are called
historians.
Etymology
{{wiktionary|history}}The word
history comes from
Greek ἱστορία (
historia), from the
Proto-Indo-European *wid-tor-, from the
root *weid-, "to know, to see".
(3) This root is also present in the English words
wit,
wise,
wisdom,
vision, and
idea, in the
Sanskrit word
veda,
(4) and in the
Slavic word
videti and
vedati, as well as others.{{Fact|date=February 2008}} (The asterisk before a word indicates that it is a hypothetical construction, not an attested form.).The
Ancient Greek word
{{polytonic|ἱστορία}},
historía, means "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation". It was in that sense that
Aristotle used the word in his
{{polytonic|Περί Τά Ζωα Ιστορία}},
Peri Ta Zoa Istória or, in Latinized form,
Historia Animalium.
(5) The term is derived from
{{polytonic|ἵστωρ}},
hístōr meaning
wise man,
witness, or
judge. We can see early attestations of {{polytonic|ἵστωρ}} in
Homeric Hymns,
Heraclitus, the
Athenian ephebes' oath, and in
Boiotic inscriptions (in a legal sense, either "judge" or "witness," or similar). The spirant is problematic, and not present in cognate Greek
eídomai ("to appear"). The form
historeîn, "to inquire", is an
Ionic derivation, which spread first in
Classical Greece and ultimately over all of
Hellenistic civilization. It was still in the Greek sense that
Francis Bacon used the term in the late 16th century, when he wrote about "
Natural History". For him,
historia was "the knowledge of objects determined by space and time", that sort of knowledge provided by
memory (while
science was provided by
reason, and
poetry was provided by
fantasy). The word entered the
English language in 1390 with the meaning of "relation of incidents, story". In
Middle English, the meaning was "story" in general. The restriction to the meaning "record of past events" arises in the late 15th century. In German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, the same word is still used to mean both "history" and "story". The adjective
historical is attested from 1661, and
historic from 1669.
(6) Historian in the sense of a "researcher of history" is attested from 1531. In all
European languages, the substantive "history" is still used to mean both "what happened with men", and "the scholarly study of the happened", the latter sense sometimes distinguished with a capital letter, "History", or the word
historiography.
(7)Description
Since historians are simultaneously observers of and participants in the historical process, the historical works they produce are written from the perspective of their own time and sometimes with due concern for possible lessons for their own future. In the words of
Benedetto Croce, "All history is contemporary history". History is facilitated by the formation of a 'true discourse of past' through the production of narrative and analysis of past events relating to the human race.
(8) The modern discipline of history is dedicated to the institutional production of this discourse. All events that are remembered and preserved in some authentic form constitute the historical record.
(9) The task of historical discourse is to identify the sources which can most usefully contribute to the production of accurate accounts of past. Therefore, the constitution of the historian's archive is a result of circumscribing a more general archive by invalidating the usage of certain texts and documents (by falsifying their claims to represent the 'true past'). The study of history has sometimes been classified as part of the
humanities and at other times as part of the
social sciences(10) It can also be seen as a bridge between those two broad areas, incorporating methodologies from both. Some individual historians strongly support one or the other classification.
(11) In modern
academia, history is increasingly classified as a
social science. In the 20th century, French
historian Fernand Braudel revolutionized the study of history, by using such outside disciplines as
economics,
anthropology, and
geography in the study of global history.Traditionally, historians have recorded events of the past, either in writing or by passing on an oral tradition, and have attempted to answer historical questions through the study of written documents and oral accounts. For the beginning, historians have also used such sources as monuments, inscriptions, and pictures. In general, the sources of historical knowledge can be separated into three categories: what is written, what is said, and what is physically preserved, and historians often consult all three.
(12) But writing is the marker that separates history from what comes before.
Archaeology is a discipline that is especially helpful in dealing with buried sites and objects, which, once unearthed, contribute to the study of history. But archaeology rarely stands alone. It uses narrative sources to complement its discoveries.There are varieties of ways in which history can be organized, including chronologically,
culturally, territorially, and thematically. These divisions are not mutually exclusive, and significant overlaps are often present, as in "The International Women's Movement in an Age of Transition, 1800–1945." It is possible for historians to concern themselves with both the very specific and the very general, although the modern trend has been toward specialization. The area called
Big History resists this specialization, and searches for universal patterns or trends. History has often been studied with some practical or
theoretical aim, but also may be studied out of simple intellectual curiosity.
(13)not
History and prehistory
{{Human history|222}}{{see|Protohistory}}The
history of the world is the memory of the past experience of
Homo sapiens around the world, as that experience has been preserved, largely in written records. By "prehistory", historians mean the recovery of knowledge of the past in an area where no written records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood.
Human history is marked both by a gradual
accretion of discoveries and
inventions, as well as by
quantum leaps —
paradigm shifts,
revolutions — that comprise epochs in the material and spiritual evolution of humankind. By studying painting, drawings, carvings, and other artifacts, some information can be recovered even in the absence of a written record. Since the 20th century, the study of prehistory is considered essential to avoid history's implicit exclusion of certain civilizations, such as those of
Sub-Saharan Africa and
pre-Columbian America. Historians in the West have been criticized for focusing disproportionately on the
Western world.
(14) In 1961, British historian
E. H. Carr wrote:
The line of demarcation between prehistoric and historical times is crossed when people cease to live only in the present, and become consciously interested both in their past and in their future. History begins with the handing down of tradition; and tradition means the carrying of the habits and lessons of the past into the future. Records of the past begin to be kept for the benefit of future generations.(15)
Such a definition would include within the scope of history peoples such as
Australian Aboriginals and New Zealand
Maori who, before contact with Europeans, already possessed a strong interest in the past and maintained oral records transmitted to succeeding generations.
Historiography
Historiography has a number of related meanings. Firstly, it can refer to how history has been produced: the story of the development of
methodology and practices (for example, the move from short-term biographical narrative towards long-term thematic analysis). Secondly, it can refer to what has been produced: a specific body of historical writing (for example, "medieval historiography during the 1960s" means "Works of medieval history written during the 1960s"). Thirdly, it may refer to why history is produced: the Philosophy of History (Historiosophy). As a
meta-level analysis of descriptions of the past, this third conception can relate to the first two in that the analysis usually focuses on the
narratives,
interpretations,
worldview, use of
evidence, or method of presentation of other
historians. Professional historians also debate the question of whether history be taught as a single coherent narrative or a series of competing narratives.
Historiosophy
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History's philosophical questions
