The Myth of the barangay and other silenced histories / Damon L. Woods with foreword by Virgilio S. Almario.

Includes index.

Filipino historians, for some time, were challenged to recreate our past using colonial sources as well as historical methodologies that were dictated by foreign scholars. In the end, some of these historians developed new paradigms in studying the past which resulted in nationalist narratives of Philippine history. The Myth of the Barangay and Other Silenced Histories follows these nationalist academic paths. Using his knowledge both in Philippine and foreign historiography, Damon L. Woods manages to unravel the truth behind those colonial writings about the Filipinos at the time of Spanish contact. Using documents from various archives here and abroad, Dr. Woods explores these documents written by Filipinos in the early seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and critically examines their content using the lenses of historiography and ethnography. Finally, the author challenges our prevailing ideas about what we do know about precolonial Filipinos, their literacy, the uses of their ancient writing known as baybayin and finally reinterpreted the concept of precolonial barangay as a myth and a result of machination of Spanish colonial masters. As an alternative, the author expounds more about Filipino precolonial culture within the broader context of Southeast Asian history. The book does not only offer new insights about reinterpreting archival documents during the Spanish period, it also gives a grasp of the direction of Philippine historiography from the colonial period up to the present. The author's broad knowledge of the histories of countries from Asia, Europe, and Latin America (and the historical methodologies used in each region) allows him to make interpretations and generalizations about Philippine precolonial culture. The Myth of the Barangay and Other Silenced Histories is not only a new addition to the body of knowledge in Philippine history but is also a very useful source material in the study of Philippine historiography. --Preface of the book.