Introduction
History remains an imperative facet in the human existence and plays an integral part in transforming the society. Since time immemorial, man has strived preserving and passing on the memory of salient cultural practices, artifacts, tradition customs, and experiences from one generation to preceding generations. This practice exists today, and clearly defines humanity and the connection man has with nature. In a similar vein, this aspect explains the difference between man and other animal species found in the universe. Man is a rational being with mental ability to make logical reasoning, inferences, and deduction about a given phenomenon. The human memory performs the role of recording, storing and recapturing life experiences and past events; an idea that distinguishes human beings from the rest of the animal species. All animals’ species have brains that control their body functions, but their memories cannot store information and past events for a long period like the human memory. The fact that the human memory powers all cognitive processes such as storing, encoding, and recapturing of past events and lifespan experiences forms a cornerstone for development of history.
There are many communities living in different parties of the world. Every community has its own of the way of life embedded in its cultural practices, customs, and values. This fact contributes in cultural diversity experienced in the contemporary society. Most communities hold the view that history remains a fundamental aspect because it helps members of the community understand nature life and their origin. It is impossible to recall experiences and events without involving the memory because the term “past” remains irrevocable and abstract in meaning. In order to ensure history persist, different communities use drawings, paintings, and cultural artifacts a means of conveying and preserving historical aspects to the future generations. This move has helped historians obtain vital information about communities despite the lack of written records.
The paper compares the term history and historiography and their uses in the history discipline.
Discussion
The term history has existed for many years since 425BC. In the last few decades, history has received wide recognition in the academic arena and other facets of social life. Numerous factors ranging from social, political and economic to cultural, have contributed in creating this paradigm but change of education curriculum remains a key factor. Initially, many institution of higher learning failed to integrate history as one of the courses offered to students. However, following the introduction of a new educational curriculum a few decades ago, history as a discipline has attracted many scholars and students pursuing history related courses. The increasing number of history students graduating from universities has changed perception held about the discipline thus enhancing its development globally.
Differences between history and historiography
For many years, historians and students have used the words history and historiography interchangeably because they hold the view that both terms mean the same thing. Although perceived in a similar breath, both terms differ remarkably from each other in a number of aspects namely; definition, meaning and application.
The word history comes from a Greek word “Historia,” which means knowledge obtained either through an investigative procedure or through an inquiry. It is a multifaceted term that may mean different aspects under variant context. Although viewed as a multifaceted term, history refers to the study of past events, experiences, innovation, and discoveries coupled with information explaining these events. Past events contribute in history development, but interne with concrete backup data. Such The past events become useless when reliable source of information is not available to explain their symbolic and contextual meaning. History also entails the study of other natural aspects that exist under cosmic and organic categories. Conventionally, the term history is commonly used when referring to the study of the human experiences and events over a long period.
History is one of the disciplines taught in learning institutions that use a narrative approach in explaining past events and life experiences and examines causal-effects relationships. Philosophy of history forms a basis of developing history as a discipline and science aimed at analyzing past events from an empirical perspective. In order to shade more light on this matter, historians use written records, oral narratives, and physical artifacts such as paintings, sculptures, and drawings to obtain information about the past and peoples’ way of life. History does not focus on the past events only, but on the importance of preserving history for the future generations. This aspect provides a clear demarcation between history as a discipline and historiography. Historians affirm that historical patterns that fail to address benefit of preserving past events to future generations be removed. Informing and educating future generations about past events compel historians preserve artifacts, paintings, written records and drawings.
Consequently, historiography is a multifaceted word with many meanings. Firstly, historiography focuses on the development of written history and dynamism that have taken place over a given period. Historians differ in the way they internalize, convey, and interpret historical events because they live at different times. This aspect has sprawl variance in interpretation of historical events because every historian focuses on the context. Therefore, historiography look at the way interpretation of these events has changed over a given time. Secondly, historiography also means the development of methodology and practices aimed at studying history. The idea of studying history from a scientific point of view emerged during (425-484BC) in Greece. Herodotus and Thucydides are two Greek scholars who contributed in development of history. Herodotus travelled widely in Mesopotamia region recording any historical event aimed at explaining the cause-effect relationship. In his study, Herodotus explained the cause-effect association from personal and divine approaches. This inferred that any cause of action exhibited emanates from human reasoning. In contrary to Herodotus assertions, Thucydides perceived the concept of cause-effect relation from a scientific approach. He eliminated the influence of divine powers in the subject matter. Thirdly, historiography may mean a body of written history published during certain periods such as, Medieval(1960-1970)Annales(1950-1960) and Fernand(1902-1985) to name, but a few. History discipline emerged after a historiography literature came into exists during the nineteenth century and has continued to develop until today.
Historiography offers a wide spectrum to study and understand written history. Unlike history, historiography includes the study of other genres of written history embedded in social and cultural constructs. Today, the number of historians shifting from studying either economic or political history has increased remarkably. This infers that historiography is dynamic in nature and encompasses other knowledge bodies related to cultural and social history.
Importance of understanding both terms
Enhance understanding of humanity, human mistakes, and misjudgment: Understanding history and historiography enables man venture into the future with cautions because of the experiences. This prevents people from making similar mistakes in the near future.
Prevent misleading based on biased facts: It is imperative to study the meaning of both terms so that to have accurate information. Other researchers provide contradicting information thus confusing readers. However, better understanding of these terms enables one to distinguish unreliable source of information from reliable.
Answering nature questions and understanding humanity: History and historiography provide historians with vast information that help in explaining and describing the occurrence of historical events. This helps people understand their immediate environment better.
Conclusion
Since time immemorial, history has remained an integral facet in the human existence. Using memory, man recollects experiences and events; an idea that distinguish him from other animal species. For many years, man has used paintings, drawings, artifacts, and sculptures in preserving written history for the future generations. The word “History” is derived from a Greek word “Historia”, which means knowledge derived from a scientific inquiry. It may also mean a discipline taught in the institution of higher learning. History deals with the study of past events and experiences and the information provided to explain these events. It employs narratives analyzing and explaining historical aspects. Historiography involves the use of methodology and practices to study written history. It focuses on the way historians interpret historical events over a given period. Understanding the meaning of these terms help in answering nature questions; prevent misleading readers and promoting understanding of humanity, human mistakes, and misjudgment.
Bibliography
Tucker, Aviezer. A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography Malden. London: Blackwell, 2009.
Stearns, Peter. Introduction". Knowing Teaching and Learning History, National and International Perspectives. New York: New York University Press, 2000.
