Discipline: History
"RURAL history is virtually a terra incognita in Philippine historical scholarship," (so observes historian Leslie E. Bauzon.) Such neglect of rural history is glaring if we note the obvious fact that in the course of its existence the Philippines has remained largely rural. As late as 1970, the Census gives us an image of the Philippines as a nation of villages with seventy percent of its population inhabiting rural and agricultural communities.
The paper discusses the need for and the practice of writing local or rural history in the Philippines.