Tripartite Sources

Understanding the tripartite nature of written sources, the classifications of narrative, diplomatic, and social, and what these classifications entail is key in evaluating sources for their relevance in a given field of research. To understand that narrative sources are aimed at presenting the specific ideas, opinions, and facts chosen by the author to further their own goals helps researchers realize that narratives cannot be used to establish facts. Narratives are useful in understanding the society and culture in which they are written.

Knowing that diplomatic sources give evidence of, or create new legal situations helps researchers understand how governments worked. By knowing the particular styles and formats used by different governing bodies, historians can follow changes in these governments. Diplomatic sources are often very formal by nature with a great deal of attention given to the different parts of the document. For many years diplomatic sources were seen as the only pure source for historical research. While diplomatic sources offer greatly detailed accounts of how governments work, they lack the social aspects needed to fully understand why things happened.

The final leg of the tripartite, social sources, is based on records keeping. While at times social sources are less formal than narratives or diplomatic documents, they can still be very useful in learning about societies and cultures of the past; however, if studied as the only source in learning about the past, social documents can be very limited in their information.

To fully research a topic you need to find the blend of all three: narrative, diplomatic, and social sources. You have to have an accounting of how the government worked, who lived where and where they worked, and what they thought about the world around them. This knowledge can only be gained by blending all three types of sources, something that can only be done if the researcher understands the nature of these sources and how they relate.