Healing Traditions of South Louisiana

Description:

This book invites you to connect with Acadians, Creoles, and Native Americans as they strive to maintain and restore good health within their families and communities. Many of the remedies and healthful practices included in Healing Traditions of South Louisiana are decades and even hundreds of years old, and, as you will discover, some are still in use today. This book has two distinct parts that eventually overlap in the stories and remedies that come forth. The beginning starts at “the beginning” of recorded medicine when long ago practices emerged. Advancing to the more recent past you will be swept up in the local tradition of the South Louisiana “Traiteur” or healer, who administered to the restorative health needs of the community with secret prayers passed from one traiteur to another, knowledge of medicinal plants, or the use of both. Yes, traiteurs exist today and still offer prayers and comfort when they are asked and several have been interviewed for this book. The second part of the book introduces you to medicinal plants that contain a myriad of healing properties that are still relieving symptoms and discomfort today. All of the plants are identified by their common and Latin names. Additionally, their descriptions, growing practices, and interesting folklore bring them to life.

Both authors, Mary Broussard Perrin and Beverly Constantine Fuselier are from the area of South Louisiana known as Acadiana. They are traiteurs and also work with healing plants, occasionally “making medicine” when the need arises.