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Primary Sources Of Historical Context

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In terms of primary sources in historical research, understanding the context is essential. Historical context essentially helps bridge the gap between you and the person who recorded the data. Different forms of context include understanding the language or dialect from that period, the purpose for recording the information and the political climate of that time; essentially anything that helps the reader to understand why the document was recorded and how to interpret its data. Many times, sources are not written with the intention of them being studied 500 years into the future, they are written more as personal letters or for posterities sake, so they cannot always be taken as bluntly factual. One of the more difficult facets of reading historical writings is the language. Even when the document is written in the reader’s native language, vernacular changes in time and can make it difficult to interpret what the writer means to get across. Sometimes, context within the document can help to interpret meaning behind unfamiliar language, such is the case for the use of the word “league (Reilly 2013)2” from the passage titled Calicut in our reading. In this case, it easy to interpret that a league is a unit of …show more content…

To stick with Christopher Columbus, understanding that not everybody was given equal rights at the time, helps to understand some of the callous language used when referring to Native Americans. The passage, “[…] in the first island which I found, I took by force some of them, in order that they might learn and give me information of that which there is in those parts, (Reilly 2013)2” displays his attitude toward their rights. In one swift sentence he proclaims that he kidnapped Native Americans and displays that from his perspective, he did them a service. The way in which he describes it is as if from his perspective, what he did is as innocent as catching a frog from a

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