Module 1 - What is History?

Chapter 1

Introduction

   The Human Sciences are all those that concern the relationships between human beings in different ways, such as through time, including History. History appears as the protagonist and supporting role of these sciences. It is both its own area of ​​study and helps in the study of others. Along with Philosophy, it is the guiding thread for the development of all human knowledge. She and her writing have generated fascination since ancient times.

  Tarik Alwan, a very important magical historian, defines history in his book The Non-Magical in Magical History as:

History is, for all wizards, the act of having memory, of remembering and reliving. History is the narrator of all events, of each fight, spell, love and change, it counts each human step up to the present. One should not think that History is that grandmother who always romanticizes her time, a 6 of cups with its head in the past. History, above all, is the present, current affairs and their study. The questions of our times that make us turn our heads back, not the other way around. Let's go from the present to the past with History.

ALWAN, Tarik, The Non-Magical in Magical History.

  When answering the question: What is History? We must understand that there is no single correct answer to the question, since historical understanding is cultural and its definition is always changing. However, it is understood that History is the study of human relations over time, their permanence and ruptures, a comparison of the present with past values, a narrative, an expression of memory. It is important to emphasize that History is not fortune-telling. Even though historians, through their studies, criticize the present and try to raise awareness for a better future, history is not for this purpose. The role of History is not to study the mistakes of the past so that they are not made again. History is the study of the present through the past, not the future.

  From this perspective, the historical process is understood as the collection and analysis of historical sources together with dialogue with other sciences. However, the magihistorian must be careful when carrying out historical research, since these sources do not correspond to a description of the past, they are aids for its interpretation. By saying that history is a process, we affirm that history is a sequence of consecutive and interrelated causalities, not isolated events.

  Time is the object of study of History, linking events and connecting them. It is fundamental, since each duration is important for adequate representation. It must also be emphasized that time and its counting is also a cultural construction, different in different societies. In addition to this, space is also important for the historian, since it informs the conditions of the event. 

  The most important thing for historians is to avoid cultural constructs of their time when conducting their studies, getting rid of anachronisms. Anachronism is the understanding of the past through current values. The effects of these views impact the interpretation of sources and create mistaken understandings due to their sharing.

  In the historical investigative method, the magihistorian must understand that there is no “absolute truth” in History. This is a changing science, which adapts to each discovery, in addition to having cultural characteristics in its composition.

  Dividing History into periods is a purely didactic resource that facilitates research and understanding. The timeline is a creation of positivist ideas that are based on evolutionism, moving from a lower to a higher stage. It is also ethnocentric and Eurocentric, based on the Western European perspective on its historical process, erroneously expanded to the rest of the world. We understand that the historical process does not stop and that each society has its own rhythm. See the timeline below:

Historical Sources

  Historical sources are the starting point for the study of History, helping to build hypotheses. They are any material or non-material trace of a people on earth.

  There are written, visual, material, audio, and oral sources (the historian's raw material since the beginning of the recording of History). But for us wizards, there are magical sources, which are those in which we study the magical effects contained and their interference in History, such as amulets, wands, spells, runes, potions, creatures, etc.

Historiography and Different Interpretations

  Historiographical currents are the various philosophical thoughts about the writing of History, constituting scientific studies. Approaches to history can be divided into three: Narrative History, which addresses the deeds of heroes, as in epics; Pragmatic History, which is based on official state texts; Scientific History, from the 19th century onwards, which approaches History as a science. Well-known strands of this historiography are positivism, Marxism, culturalism and New History.

  The positivist school was founded by Auguste Comte in the 19th century. This idiot had ideas that drove and paved the way for historiography, but today they are mistaken. Comte based his historiography exclusively on official records, evolutionary progressivism and important historical figures. His thoughts are widely questioned due to their neutrality. The historian is not a neutral agent, and if neutral, his subjectivity interferes with studies, in addition to producing an erroneous understanding that history is made up only of important figures. One of the main followers of positivism in Magical History is William Marangue, defender of the theory of the One But.

  The Marxist, or materialist, school was a great critic of positivism, also founded in the 19th century by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. These two wizards disguised among Muggles understood that the engine of History is the class struggle and the material conditions (economy) of a society, resorting to the division of labor and modes of production. They point to the existence of a group of people who take ownership of the means of production and exploit the labor of workers from the moment when collectivist societies cease to exist. Marxist maghistorians base their theory on the idea that “The History of humanity is the History of class struggle”, the notion of contradictions. Examples of Marxist historians in the wizarding world are Paige R. and Josiah Loppet.

The materialist conception of the world is limited to simply conceiving nature as it is, without any kind of extraneous additions

ENGELS, Frederich.

It is not the consciousness of man that determines his existence, but, on the contrary, his social existence that determines his consciousness.

MARX, Karl.

  In culturalist or idealist theory, Max Weber's thoughts stand out, for example. This school arises from criticism of historical materialism. These schools of thought state that human relationships are constructed by the human mentality and sociocultural values, and how these influence human trajectory. A well-known magical historian - if not the best-known - from the culturalist school of thought is Bathilda Bagshot. 

  Developed in France in 1920, the Annales School was created by Marc Bloch (a wizard) and Lucien Febvre and became a reference in historical studies. Also called New History, it presents History as the cultural maintenance of social groups, in the interdisciplinarity of Social Sciences, in long-term analysis, in addition to using oral accounts and traditions as historical sources. 

  It is important to remember that no school of thought is an absolute and universal truth. A good historian must add them together and understand them as different forms of conception, possibilities of understanding.