---
"Bar-B-Q" is the transliteration of an Arawak-Caribbean word, "barbacoa." In Texas, they adapted the East-Mexican and Oaxacan methods of cooking: raw seasoned meats slow cooked on a spit or in a clay oven over an open pit with or without an open flame. Oaxacan/Texan barbacoa is more like roasting than brazing. In the East, we adopted the Arawak methods of cooking: buried in a pit or placed on a rack in a covered vessel of some sort - vegetation, typically - to slow-steam or braise the meat before charring over an open flame to caramelize the exterior and thicken the cooking liquid into a sauce. That's the big difference between the two: roast vs. braise. That and, as CQB points out, the Arawak didn't know what a "tomato" was until after the Spanish Conquest. They used what they had - citrus, fruits, natural alcohols and spoiled wines (vinegar) and salt - as a brine to tenderize and form a braising liquid for the meat and remove the natural "funk" of unrefrigerated meats. The Arawak also didn't know what a cow was until the Spaniards invaded, which is why Eastern barbacoa is almost always pork or goat.
Something interesting to note: While the Spaniards never enforced dietary restrictions on their conquests, they did impose heavy taxes and seized the best produce from their subjects. The French did the same. Which is one reason why shortly after the Spanish Conquest of the Caribbean, the Arawak diet became decidedly vegetarian. That's when most of the tomato and chili-based sauces for rice, beans, and fish came into being. Similarly after the French Conquest of Northern Mexico, the Mexican diet became more nearly vegetarian and many of the popular meatless "TexMex" cuisines we know today came into being.
Sorry. I read a lot of history and am something of a "foodie."
