Interpreting Historical Records

 

Interpreting historical records

Imagine you are a historian in 2120 trying to re construct the narrative of human life in 2020.

1)      What records do you have of 2020?

2)      Who made these records, why and in what form?

3)      What and who might be missing from these records?

4)      How do the answers to questions 1 to 3 affect your interpretation of the record and your narrative of human life in 2020?

1)    Historians are people who study about our past, present and future. A historian can have access to many things such as sources for their information. They have different methods to obtain these pieces of information, whether it may be trial and error, or leaps of insight. They aim to find and evaluate sources, interpret the evidence and then reconstruct a truthful narrative of the past. Records that we have of 2020 can be from books written from 2020 onwards. There are many different sources such as books, articles, blogs, etc… Articles written during their period of time about particular events. Important days that are celebrated can also tell us allot about their culture. Sources can tell us about many things like trading routes, way of life, culture and a lot more.

This is a very popular Historical Book written in 2019-2020 about different ocean and trade routes during that time. This book is called; “The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans”. This book traces the history of human movement and interaction around and across the world's greatest bodies of water, charting our relationship with the oceans from the time of the first voyagers till date.

2)   People who were interested in the history of their current life would have made these sources. As I had said before, History is not just a study about the past. It is about your present and your future too. Authors who were interested in history may have also written these books that act as our current sources. Previous Historians also could have written about their present history to. The population can also contribute to this. Entries on the internet and other areas or all their point of view on what is really going on in their time. Every little detail can also be a source for Historians.

For example in this article below there is plenty of information given by some historians in 2020 of “how 2020 Will Go Down in the History Books, According to Historians”.

https://time.com/5917093/2020-history-books-historians/

The date of the article is during that period of time; “By Olivia B. Waxman December 23, 2020 12:00 PM EST”. So this way we know it is a primary source, which are generally a more accurate form of source.

3)   Many things can go missing in records. Extinct animal species, world phenomenon, even people who have passed away. Not everything is noted down or digitally recorded, and even though these things can help us learn more about the year 2020, it does not always get retained throughout the years. Generally important people who have made an impact in the society will be remembered, however there are some people who stand on the sidelines but still contribute a great deal. These particular things might be missing from our records of 2020. However it is very likely that a majority of the information is recorded through some mean or the other.

4)   Well in my own point of view I feel like life in 2020 would have been more modernized with a lot of technology as in when compared to a time period before 2020. As they have also been hit by a pandemic during that time, their genetic makeup might have changed. This is how things are slowly involving. However I have noticed that we can’t always rely on all the information that we get, because things like social media can be very misleading and also most of the information on the internet can be edited by anyone and everyone and so not everything is reliable. However it is a Historian’s job to rely on reliable sources by identifying the important sources and organizing them. A record or a source can change based on things like bias and point of view, but every source has some truth in it, that we need to pull out.