Volume 2, Number 2, July-December 2014 HISTORICAL MAPPING METHOD: NEW RESEARCH METHOD FOR RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Dr. Tin Naing Win Department of History, Yadanabon University ABSTRACT have been vi vidly a nd t horoughly explained i n t his pa per a long with In doi ng hi storical recon- some supporting citations and instances. struction s everal d ifferent fo rms o f Moreover, the r esearcher h as j udged research methods ar e u sually used on the defect and perfect points of the laying d own r esearch methodology, new method introduced. firmly. Once a research methodology is laid down, it must be the one that The f our u ltimate o bjectives can a ppropriately s upport a nd shape of writing this research paper are: the field of research or subject matter • To i ntroduce a n ew r esearch studied. There a re a num ber of method i .e. “ Historical Map- historical sources that can be presen- ping Method” ted not only in the form of words but • To pr ove t hat hi storical map- in the illu stratable p attern o r s truc- ping method is very important ture. In other words, historical events, and us eful not onl y i n doi ng facts an d d ata that ar e neither historical research but i n pur- geographical f eatures n or physical suing other disciplinary studies reality, can b e r epresented as ‘histo- • To show the practical drawing rical m aps’. T herefore, i n t his paper of s econdary hi storical maps attempts h ave b een made to r eveal using t he hi storical mapping and introduce the Historical Mapping method Method, a new research method, into • To en courage h istorical researchers research methodology, a nd t hrow to us e t his a pplicable ne w much light on t he i mportance of research method historical ma pping method i n hi sto- rical reconstruction and research with As this study is a preliminary concrete evidences to solve why i t is introductory r esearch work i n t he so i mportant. W ith a br ief comparison field, it will bring us to a new field of with other r esearch m ethods, t he research i n n ear fu ture. T herefore, I definition to the H istorical M apping simply hop e t hat i t would be a Method that has never been described significant contribution, so to say, not in p revious research methodological merely f or t he hi story and hi storical works, its importance, usefulness and research b ut for t he de velopment of benefits for various kinds of research research methodology itself. 57 Volume 2, Number 2, July-December 2014 KEY WORDS disciplinary r esearch t rend, r esearch categories, r esearch m ethods, d ata Historical Mapping Method, collection m ethods, da ta analyzing Research Methodology, Secondary and synthesizing and research metho- Historical Map, dology. Non-readymade Secondary Historical Map, Mappable Sources, Mappable In doi ng hi storical recon- Data, struction s everal d ifferent fo rms o f Mappable Theme, Mapping research methods ar e u sually u sed laying dow n r esearch methodology, firmly. Once a research methodology THE ROLE OF RESEARCH is laid down, it must be the one that METHODOLOGY IN DOING can a ppropriately s upport a nd shape HISTORICAL RESEARCH the field of research or subject matter studied. Similarly, the research methods Research is g enerally u nder- to be us ed must also be s uitable and stood t o f ollow a c ertain s tructural appropriate with t he r esearch unde r process. Although pr ocedure or investigating. The r esearch m ethods research m ethodology m ay vary that are mo stly u sed in h istorical depending on t he s ubject m atter a nd research are h istorical m ethod, researcher, such steps as formation of descriptive m ethod, c ase s tudy m ethod, the topic, hy pothesis pr esenting, comparative method, etc. These methods conceptual a nd ope rational definitions, are, i ndeed, d ata p resentation data g athering a nd analysis, hy pothesis methods w hich a re to be us ed in testing, c onclusion a nd i nterpretation alternative w ays as ar e n ecessary are usually p arts of mo st f ormal depending on t he bases of available research, bot h ba sic a nd applied. sources, da ta a nd f ield of s tudy in Etymologically, the w ord ‘ research’ doing r esearch o n d iverse academic derives from the French ‘recherché’, disciplines. T herefore, al l t hese from ‘rechercher’, t o s earch closely methods a ssociate w ith a ll ki nds of where ‘ chercher’ m eans ‘ to search’; academic d isciplines. I n accordance its lite ral me aning is ‘ to investigate with the em ergence o f n ew m ulti- thoroughly’ N owadays r esearch is disciplinary s ubjects and t he expan- defined a s an or ganized and sion of the scopes of fields of study, systematic way of finding answers to number of research methods becomes questions, and human activities based increased, a nd di verse in form. on in tellectual a pplication in invest- Therefore, there would be found that tigation o f ma tter. T ruly, i n doi ng various research m ethodologies i .e. research, t he ap plication o f intellectual research m ethods are s tated differently knowledge i s ve ry i mportant a nd in numerous research methodological certainly e ssential. Similar v ital factor works written by eastern and western is that it is also needed to understand, scholars on the subject. In Wikipedia thoroughly and de finitely, a bout 58 Volume 2, Number 2, July-December 2014 that had b een l astly edited i n J uly local h istorians mu st c ertainly d o s o 2007, t here are a ltogether nineteen as it will be more fully endowed with research methods d escribed, w here information if a lo cal h istory is one may notice that data presentation presented not only with texts but with methods, data collection methods and historical ma ps. It must b e said th at research t ypes h ave b een described, this is either a requirement o r an collectively a nd c onfusedly. H owever, obligation. Therefore, i n s uch c ase, there is another research method that one m ust ap ply t he n ew research has ne ver be en de scribed or that method historical ma pping me thod; cannot be found in all these ‘manuals research r esults t hat r eceived b y t he of research’ w orks a nd onl ine Wiki- using of t hat ne w m ethod w ould be pedia and en cyclopedias. That i s a significant contribution for the related new r esearch m ethod cal led ‘historical local history an d h istorical r esearch mapping method’. as well. C orrespondingly, one m ust also t ake n otice o f t he cap able o f presenting other historical events that INTRODUCTION OF HISTORI- are not as sociated w ith l ocal o r CAL MAPPING METHOD INTO regional hi storical s tudy, in t he form RESEARCH METHODOLOGY of maps or figures by using historical mapping method. The reason for the introducing of h istorical ma pping method is that For Myanmar history, we find as some certain historical sources and various s orts of pr imary hi storical facts a re not onl y m appable or sources t hat can b e co nverted as illustratable sources and facts but also useful hi storical m aps s uch for they should be m apped a nd pr esented, example as pei, parabaik, s tone if they are transformed from the form inscription, sittan, royal chronicle and of words to a map and then presented, gazetteer. A s s uch ev ents a s t ravel it would be more obvious, observable accounts w ere us ed to r ecord i n the and able to provide respective historical sources l ike pei and/or parabaik, study. A nother r eason is be cause of route maps c an be dr awn ba sed on the thoughtlessness and negligence of those a ccounts. L ocality of a parti- historical w riters c oncerning historical cular pl ace, area, di stance, population, maps in doi ng hi storical r esearch. background s ocio-economic c onditions This means t hat a hi storian w ho are u sually described i n gazetteers studies a bout a l ocal, r egional or and sittans census-requests. Therefore, global hi story does not us ed t o draw numerous good m appable hi storical or study maps that are directly related events and facts can be found also in to the l ocality or r egion he s tudied. such sources. The fact that what kind Indeed, if there have already been as of historical maps can be drawn from much mappable s ources an d f acts as these sources will depend on the field needed t o be mapped a nd presented, 59 Volume 2, Number 2, July-December 2014 studied a nd on t he sources a nd method of ‘ using’ or ‘ drawing’ of historical events available.