Secrets de rebouteux, par Marcelle Bouteiller, Morel 1967

Condition:

Overall in very good condition for a volume from this collection.

Author:

Marcelle Bouteiller was deeply interested in traditional rural knowledge, ancient gestures, and popular healing practices. In this volume, she gathers the techniques of rebouteux — countryside healers who treated pain through touch, the warmth of the hands, medicinal plants, and methods passed down from generation to generation. Her writing is simple, precise, and respectful of these discreet forms of knowledge, often transmitted within families. She brings back a world where healing came from experience, observation, and an intimate relationship with the human body.

Why this book is unusual:

This volume is unusual because it reveals a traditional healing knowledge that was rarely written down. Its originality comes from:

• the round format typical of the O Collection,

• the unusual theme: the secrets of rural healers,

• the blend of ethnology and physical practice,

• oral tradition transformed into a book‑object,

• the presence of gestures and popular remedies in a tiny, poetic format.

A book that opens a window onto a vanished world, where people healed with their hands and the memory of the elders.

Theme:

Gestures, remedies, beliefs, and practices of rebouteux: body care, joints, pain relief, medicinal plants, rural traditions, oral transmission. A sensitive exploration of traditional folk medicine.