原始数据 Primary Sources论文

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原始数据 Primary Sources论文

　　Worksheet for Analyzing Primary Sources

　　People living in the past left many clues about their lives. Historians combine all of these clues—or “primary sources”—together in order to fashion a historical record.

　　What is a Primary Source? Primary sources are the original documents or materials produced by the people involved in the subject that is under historical investigation. Sources can include written and oral materials (government documents, newspaper articles, maps, memoirs, speeches, literature, court transcripts, lectures, letters, interviews), visual material (paintings, photographs, drawings), and material objects (tools, furniture, sculpture, buildings, coins); they are the main building blocks for learning about and interpreting the past, pieces of evidence that show what people thought, how and why they acted, and what they managed to accomplish.

　　Historians use primary sources to provide deeper, broader and more textured contexts to the events and people that they write about. Often, close studies of source material provides color and flavor to historical understanding that is absent from secondary sources (historical texts produced by scholars who did not live in the time or place of the matter under investigation, like history textbooks or a professor’s lectures—basically, a historian’s prepared presentation of his/her reconstruction and interpretation of the past). It is assumed that the careful examination of primary sources can provide clues as to how and why events took place, what actions were taken, and the significance of these events and action.

　　However, a clue is not “proof”; historians must also be aware of the source’s limitations and be critical of the sources available by looking for falsehoods, forgeries, errors, inconsistencies, shades of meaning, and the historical actor’s motives for producing the document, image, or object under scrutiny. In the process of sifting through materials, historians usually have some tentative conclusions already in mind that guide the search for and research in source materials.

　　Analyzing sources is an active process that introduces you to how historians craft history from the evidence and interpretations. Among other things, primary sources expose the historian to crucial insight into the importance of multiple perspectives on great issues of the past and present. History, after all, deals with matters that were furiously debated by the participants; interpretations of the past are furiously debated as well, among historians, policy makers, politicians, and ordinary people. By dealing directly with primary sources, historians ask questions, think critically, make intelligent inferences, and develop reasoned explanations and interpretations of events and issues in the past and present. In addition to aiding you in understanding the past, this assignment may also provide you with skills helpful in engaging with instances of evidence, event, and meaning in your present circumstances.

　　This exercise will help you to better understand the tasks and challenges that historians face when they strive to discover what people thought and did in the past and provide you with insight into how history’s stories are shaped by the kinds of questions historians ask, the sources that they use, and the methods (and methodologies) used to synthesize the evidence with a historian’s ideas.

　　Analyzing Sources: Before your work as a historian begins, ask yourself six basic questions. The answers to these questions allow you to critically evaluate what can be learned from the source under analysis:

　　What is this source? (letter, diary, treatise, photograph, etc.)

　　Who recorded or produced it?

　　When was it recorded or produced?

　　Where was it recorded or produced?

　　How was it recorded or produced? Was it created through a spur-of-the-moment act, a routine transaction, or a thoughtful, deliberate process? H

　　ow did it come to be preserved?

　　What are three important things that the producer of the source sought to communicate?

　　Then, take your investigation to a deeper level by asking more substantive, probing questions:http://www.51lunwen.org/liuxuelunwen/

　　>Why do you think this document was written? What evidence in the document

　　helps you know why it was written? Quote from the document.

　　>Who was the intended audience? Was it a personal diary intended to be kept

　　private? Was the document, image or object prepared for public scrutiny

　　or use?

　　>What questions does this source raise for you?

　　>Is it a reliable source? Why or why not? Did the recorder wish to inform or

　　persuade others? Did the recorder have reasons to be honest or dishonest?

　　{see section below on reliability and bias}

　　>What do we not know about this source?

　　>What other sources might help answer our questions about this one? What kinds

　　of sources would you like to have (in a perfect world) to compare with this

　　one? Are there other sources in existence like this one that can be used for

　　comparison?

　　>What other information do we have about this document? What else do we need to

　　know in order to understand the evidence in this source?

　　Identifying Reliability & Bias : Some primary sources may be judged more reliable than others, but every source is biased in some way. Every document has a creator, and every creator has a point of view, blind spots, and biases. A source’s creator had opinions or interests that probably influenced how and what was recorded. As a result, historians read sources skeptically and critically. They also cross-check sources against other evidence and sources.

　　To judge the quality of a primary source’s reliability, historians use what some call the time and place rule. This rule says that the closer in time and place a source and its creator were to an event in the past, the better the source will be. Based on the time and place rule, better primary sources (starting with the most reliable) might include:

　　Direct traces of the event;

　　Accounts of the event, created at the time it occurred, by firsthand observers, witnesses, and participants;

　　Accounts of the event, created after the event occurred, by firsthand observers, witnesses, and participants;

　　Accounts of the event, created after the event occurred, by people who did not participate or witness the event, but who used interviews or evidence from the time of the event.

　　The historians’ second rule to check reliability is the bias rule. It acknowledges that every source is biased in some way and the total objectivity is an epistemological impossibility. Documents tell us only what the creator of the document thought happened, or perhaps only what the creator wants us to think happened. As a result, historians follow the following guidelines when they review evidence from the past for built in bias:

　　Every piece of evidence and every source must be read or viewed skeptically and critically.

　　No piece of evidence should be taken at face value. The creator’s point of view must be considered.

　　Each piece of evidence and source must be cross-checked and compared with related sources and pieces of evidence.

　　A Note on Images, Visual Documents & Visual Records: Visual documents include photographs, films, paintings, and other types of artwork. Because visual documents capture moments in time, they can provide evidence of changes over time. Visual documents include evidence about a culture at specific moments in history: its customs, preferences, styles, special occasions, work, and play. Like other primary source documents, a visual document has a creator with a point of view -- such as a painter, sculptor, or film maker. Even photographs were created by photographers using film and cameras to create desired effects.

　　Think about the creator’s point of view when you review visual document

　　s. What was the creator’s purpose? Why this pose? Why that perspective? Why that framing? Why this distance? Why this subject? What was included? What was excluded? Using visual documents as primary sources requires careful analysis of the content and the point of view of the creator.

　　YOUR PRIMARY SOURCE ASSIGNMENT FOR HIS 101 http://www.51lunwen.org/liuxuelunwen/

　　(SUMMER SESSION: due before noon Aug 14th )

　　Choose a source. You can do this by poking around on these sites (many sources are cross-listed to other pages, so there may be some repetition of sources. There are lots of links on these pages to other sources, like the history of science, that I haven’t listed below but you can find easily):

　　-Ancient History Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook.html

　　(the blue box on the left side of the page breaks down different regions and topics)

　　-Medieval History Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

　　(the green box on the left side of the page breaks down different regions and topics)

　　-Modern History Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html

　　(the green box on the left side of the page breaks down different regions and topics)

　　-The African History Sourcebook: www.fordham.edu/halsall/africa/africasbook.html

　　(scroll down for the breakdown of regions and topics)

　　-The Indian History Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/india/indiasbook.html

　　(scroll down for the breakdown of regions and topics)

　　-The Islamic History Sourcebook: www.fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook.html

　　(scroll down for the breakdown of regions and topics)

　　-The Global History Sourcebook: www.fordham.edu/halsall/global/globalsbook.html

　　(scroll down for the breakdown of topics)

　　-Women’s History Sourcebook: www.fordham.edu/halsall/women/womensbook.html

　　(scroll down for the breakdown of topics)

　　-The LGBT History Sourcebook: www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/

　　Find one that relates to something we cover in this class and analyze it with this question (from page 2 of this handout): Is it a reliable source? Why or why not? Did the recorder wish to inform or persuade others? Is there a bias that you can see? Did the recorder have reasons to be honest or dishonest?

　　Your answer need not be more than a page—you can just give short answers to these five questions (unless you’ve really got something that you want to say about the subject). Please load your answer into the drop-box before noon on Saturday August 14. Email me if you have any questions.

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