Barbecue. Barbeque. BBQ. Disambiguation removes the uncertainty of meaning from this linguistic unit. For all etymology, the study of the words barbecue, barbeque and BBQ all have the same origin. Their linguistics investigates how these words have changed and adapted, analyzing their component parts and identifying their cognates. Etymology explores the earliest recorded use of a word, tracing its development within a language and investigates its transmission to other languages. Barbecue, Barbeque, and BBQ are terms used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to cook food. Generally, those terms are also applied to the devices associated with the aforementioned cooking methods, the broader cuisines that these specific methods produce, as well as the meals and gatherings at which this style of food is cooked and served.
The cooking techniques that were implemented during prehistoric times shaped how humans prepare and eat foods today. During the Paleolithic Era, historians believe that humans discovered fire–over a million years ago. Although currently not known precisely HOW humans discovered fire, it is believed that after doing so, humans placed the food that they got from hunting and gathering directly onto the fire—AND THE REST IS HISTORY!! THE FIRST BBQ-ers -achieved an EPIC MILESTONE! The process of cooking raw food made it much easier for Paleolithic humans to consume all of the food that they foraged and hunted. Fire enabled the foodstuffs, especially raw meat– to become soft and tender. Another widely held belief is that with the advent of cooking raw meat, humans evolved to have much smaller jawbones due to eating the more pliable meat, and in turn, that allowed their skull’s craniums to grow larger, therefore allowing them to develop bigger brains.
After the creation of fire, hunting for food became more prevalent. Humans became more knowledgeable about the animals that they were hunting as food sources. Humans began to ”track” their animal prey by memorizing patterns and behaviors of animal movement, thus making it easier to attack their prey more quickly and stealthily. Quite obviously, many animals that the Paleolithic humans hunted for food sources are now animals that are extinct; such as the wooly mammoth, mastodons, hornless rhinos, and flightless birds. Many of these extinct animals were significantly larger than a single human being, thereby humans were only able to successfully “hunt down” the larger animal prey in Hunting Groups. Once the Hunting Group returned to the common dwelling place with their meat-meals-foodstuff in tow, the cooking process would be initiated. The meat would be cooked by placing it on top of the fire, which was placed in a pit. Those who had remained at the dwelling sight- i.e; the Paleolithic mobile “Village” would have already prepared “The Pit” by digging a hole in soft soil and placing the fire in that pit in order to protect the fire and prevent the fire from going out-blowing out due to wind and other external weather elements. Leaves were commonly placed in the fire pit to assist the fire in remaining alight during rainfall, and hot stones were also added to prolong the life of the fire. Most meats during the Paleolithic Era were roasted over the open flames, but some meats and foodstuffs which were particularly tough were boiled, using a specially created pit which was filled with hot water and hot stones.
The 3 main characteristics of The Paleolithic Era are:
- A nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle
- The creation of rudimentary stone tools
- The development of Art and early forms of symbolic expression
The Paleolithic humans lived a nomadic lifestyle- hunting and gathering while following the movement of prey and game as food sources, as well as gathering edible roots and plants. They lived in smaller groups or bands, often in caves or temporary shelters and relied upon their environment for basic survival. The Paleolithic Age is defined by the use of stone tools, including hand axes, flake tools, and other implements made by chipping and shaping stones. These tools were used for hunting, gathering, crafting, and other basic necessities. The Paleolithic Period also saw the emergence of cave art- including paintings, engravings and sculptures, in addition to the utilization of symbolic objects such as bone and ivory carvings. These artistic renditions and expressions are believed to have been related to rituals, storytelling, and even possibly shamanistic practices. Paleolithic people relied heavily upon stone for tools and weapons, lived in small bands moving with the seasons to hunt and gather food, and created cave paintings and other artifacts.
During the Paleolithic Period, or Old Stone Age, early humans in this era shared the planet with a number of now-extinct hominin relatives, including Neanderthals and Denisovans. The Paleolithic period ranges from (roughly) 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 BC. Paleolithic groups developed increasingly more complex tools such as wooden spears. These new tools aided in their hunt of bison and deer. Ancient humans in this era were also the first to leave behind art. The Paleolithic people used combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone meal, and charcoal mixed into water, blood, and animal fats and tree saps to etch and paint their artworks, depicting humans, animals, hunting, and symbols. Aside from cave dwelling, humans in this era also lived in simple huts and tepees. They also carved small figurines from stones, clay, bones, and wood.
Language, Art, Scientific Inquiry, and Spiritual Life were assuredly some of the MOST important innovations of the Paleolithic era. The end of the Paleolithic period marked the end of the last Ice Age, which resulted in the extinction of many large mammals, rising sea levels and climate change.
“PALEOLITHIC” literally means “Old Stone.” On average, Paleolithic humans lived for approximately 22 to 33 years of age. This era was a time period in human history when hunting, foraging, and fishing were the primary means of obtaining food. When the Paleolithic people began fishing, they soon realized that cooking fish directly on top of an open flame fire was difficult because fish burned so readily and also fell apart whilst sitting atop an open fire. The challenge of cooking fish as a protein prompted them to invent new ways to cook food. One way was the method of covering the fish with wet clay to better control the cooking temperature. They would first enrobe the fish with wet clay and then place it into the fire pit. The wet clay hardened while in the fire pit and once the fish was properly and fully cooked, they would break apart the hardened clay to get to the fish inside. YUP- YOU GUESSED IT, www.ribbqnews.com readers, clay would eventually be used to make pots and other cookware!! BBQ HISTORY IN THE MAKING!
The Paleolithic Era shall evermore be remembered and associated with the characteristics of:
–More prominent use of tools made of stone, bone, ivory, natural fibers and wood
–An increase in the diversity of artifacts produced
–Evolution of humans from the genus Homo into anatomically modern humans
–Fluctuation of climate between warm and cool periods
–Employing a communal system for dividing labor and resources
–The Innovation of Language and Art; “Historical record shows that language allowed for increasingly complex social structures, with an enhanced capacity for deliberation, morality, spirituality, and ‘meaning-making’ – and Artwork such as cave painting and portable art demonstrates creativity and group structures as well. They (The Paleolithic People) also showed an interest in sharing knowledge, expressing feelings, and transmitting cultural information,” according to www.khanacademy.com The portable figurine of a nude female shown below is dated to Paleolithic times, over 25,000 years old, and was unearthed at Dolni Vestonice in the modern-day Czech Republic, and is described as a ceramic statuette with “finely carved features showing a desire to create beautifully accentuated figurines,” and has been named “VENUS OF DOLNI VESTONICE.”
AND OF COURSE, WE MUST CREDIT AND THANK THE PALEOLITHIC PEOPLE FOR INTRODUCING THE FIRST BARBECUE, BARBEQUE, AND BBQ TO HUMANITY!!! The aforementioned remarkable historical facts give the modern-day terminology of a BBQ “CAVE MAN CUT” Steak an ENTIRELY MORE SIGNIFICANT MEANING!!! A CAVEMAN CUT STEAK is a massive, thick cut that encompasses the entire round of beef. It includes the Sirloin Tip, Top Round, Bottom Round, Eye of Round, and part of the Tri-Tip. This COLOSSAL CUT is the absolute biggest steak that you can get! …However, during The Paleolithic Era, I believe that I would have most definitely refrained from consuming The Wooly Mammoth and Mastodon Cave Man Cuts—I would have politely declined and contended with, “Please–DO NOT pass that BBQ Platter to me!”
