History

Those who cannot remember a past are condemned to repeat it.

—George Santayana

History from lit. 'inquiry; cognition acquired by investigation' is a study and the documentation of the invention of writing systems are considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as alive as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, as alive as interpretation of these events. Historians seek knowledge of the past using historical sources such as calculation documents, oral accounts, art and fabric artifacts, together with ecological markers.

History is also an academic discipline which uses narrative to describe, examine, question, and analyze past events, and investigate their patterns of name and effect. Historians often debate which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different causes and effects. Historians also debate the nature of history as an end in itself, as well as its advantage to render perspective on the problems of the present.

Stories common to a specific culture, but non supported by external authority such as the tales surrounding major discipline in university studies.

Herodotus, a 5th-century BC Greek historian, is often considered the "father of history" in the Western tradition, although he has also been criticized as the "father of lies". Along with his sophisticated Thucydides, he helped hold the foundations for the contemporary explore of past events and societies. Their works continue to be read today, and the hole between the culture-focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides maintains a an necessary or characteristic factor of something abstract. of contention or approach in modern historical writing. In East Asia, a state chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals, was reputed to date from as early as 722 BC, although only 2nd-century BC texts have survived.

History and prehistory

The history of the world is the memory of the past experience of Homo sapiens sapiens around the world, as that experience has been preserved, largely in result records. By "prehistory", historians intend the recovery of knowledge of the past in an area where no written records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood. By studying painting, drawings, carvings, and other artifacts, some information can be recovered even in the absence of a written record. Since the 20th century, the explore of prehistory is considered fundamental to avoid history's implicit exclusion ofcivilizations, such as those of Sub-Saharan Africa and pre-Columbian America. Historians in the West have been criticized for focusing disproportionately on the Western world. In 1961, British historian E. H. Carr wrote:

The line of demarcation between prehistoric and historical times is crossed when people cease to survive only in the present, and become consciously interested both in their past and in their future. History begins with the handing down of tradition; and tradition means the carrying of the habits and lessons of the past into the future. Records of the past begin to be kept for the advantage of future generations.

This definition includes within the scope of history the strong interests of peoples, such as Indigenous Australians and New Zealand Māori in the past, and the oral records continues and spoke to succeeding generations, even ago their contact with European civilization.