Barbecue is a word that means different things to
different people. It can be a verb or a noun. It can be pulled pork or
beef ribs. And, especially in the American South, it can cause intense
debate and stir regional pride. Perhaps then, it is no surprise that
the roots of this food tradition are often misunderstood.
In Savage
Barbecue,
Andrew Warnes traces what he calls America's first food through early
transatlantic literature and culture. Building on the work of scholar
Eric Hobsbawm, Warnes argues that barbecue is an invented tradition,
much like Thanksgiving--one long associated 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. European colonists linked the new food to a savagery
they perceived in American Indians, ensnaring barbecue in a growing web
of racist attitudes about the New World. Warnes also unearths the
etymological origins of the word barbecue, including the early form
barbacoa; its coincidental similarity to barbaric reinforced emerging
stereotypes.
Barbecue, as it arose in early transatlantic culture, had less to do
with actual native practices than with a European desire to define
those practices as barbaric. Warnes argues that the word barbecue
retains an element of violence that can be seen in our culture to this
day. Savage Barbecue offers an original and highly rigorous perspective
on one of America's most popular food traditions. |
Savage Barbecue
Race, Culture, and the Invention of America's First Food
by Andrew Warnes
University of Georgia Press,
2008
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