“Savage Barbecue”: The etymology of the word BBQ

Savage Barbecue: Race, Culture, and the Invention of America’s First Food by Andrew Warnes is not your normal everyday BBQ book.  And it’s certainly not a BBQ cookbook.  With words like etymology, and quoting the plays of of 17th century English playwright Aphra Behn, this is not going to be a book you’re going to read laying in your hammock while tending  your stick burner on a Saturday afternoon while performing some low & slow mastery on a pork shoulder or brisket.

The origin of the barbecue cooking process along with how the word came about is debated around bbq pits all over America. I don’t think anyone person can explain it the same way any other BBQ enthusiast might.

There probably isn’t a BBQ forum on the internet that has not been turned into a fire storm of contention and arguments over how, when and where barbecue started.  Because of cultural and regional pride no one has probably ever had their mind changed during the inevitable spats that occur whenever this subject is brought up.  Warnes tosses all the normal assumptions out the window with a well researched and highly scholarly examination of the origins of America’s first food.

From the back cover:

“Barbecue, says Warnes, is an invented tradition.  Much like ‘Thanksgiving’, it has close association with frontier mythologies of ruggedness and relaxation.  Starting with Columbus’s journals in 1492, Warnes shows how the perception of barbecue evolved from Spanish colonists’ first fateful encounter with natives roasting iguanas and fish over fires on the beaches of Cuba.”

From the first mention of the word “babeque” in the journals of Christopher Columbus in 1492 to the first use of the word “barbacoa” in what is to become Panama and on to Virginia and Georgia not only does Warne weave a believable scenario for the invention of barbecue he provides a fantastic history of the Caribbean, Colonial America and  social tensions in the England.

Warnes connects barbecue with the “savagery” associated with the people of Caribbean during the height of the sugar trade in the 1600′s.  Although he makes a compelling case for connecting the dots between “savages” and racial stereotypes during this period I’m not sure how much I’m willing to buy into it.  He traces his hypothesis back to England and the social tensions prevalent during the reign of James II.

The book continues on into modern day with a history of BBQ in the south that is an excellent read on the southern BBQ culture that has bred the greatest comfort foods we know.  If you can stand the “college textbook” feel of this book you’ll learn a great deal about why BBQ is more than the etymology of a word, it’s culture, it’s history and more importantly it’s a way of life.

Savage Barbecue: Race, Culture, and the Invention of America’s First Food was published by The University of Georgia Press in 2008.