“Je jongle au Bon Dieu quand je traite”: Traiteurs in Francophone Louisiana

“Je jongle au Bon Dieu quand je traite” highlights a local understanding of traitement, or treatment as it is called in English, a healing tradition specific to Francophone Louisiana. After the Acadian resettlement in Louisiana—a Spanish colony at the time—the Cajuns developed a unique, blended culture in response to both a physical environment (which included swamps, bayous, marshes, and prairies) and a social environment that mixed continental and Caribbean French peoples, Germans, Spaniards, Indigenous peoples, and African and Anglo-Americans. Sharing the need for medical attention, the practice of traitement—and the importance of traiteurs—was born.

In this work, in both English and French versions, Dana Davit Gravot explores the practice of traitement through her decades-long experience interviewing the traiteurs themselves. In particular, she explains the complex and often unspoken social rules that underpin the tradition, and notes a few of the common herbal remedies that often accompany a traitement. By combining years of academic study with highly personal and intimate interviews, Gravot underscores the significance of this local healing practice.  

About the Author

Dana Gravot is a native of Cameron Parish in southwestern Louisiana. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a dual major in French and English. She earned her master’s in French at Middlebury College and a PhD in Francophone Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Dana is a folklorist who specializes in belief systems and processions, specifically French Louisiana, and has presented and published articles on traitement in academic journals for more than twenty years.  She teaches French language and literature online and gardens.

© 2024 University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press

Paperback | 6" x 9"