Cartierism is where medical technology is used
unacknowledged from a source who is simultaneously
vilified and often from indigenous cultures. Cartierism is so named because of the best known historical example.
Cartierism has its roots from Jacques
Cartier's European expedition to Canada in 1535 at the start of European colonization.
Cartier and his crew spent the winter unexpectedly in Stadacona, Quebec, he and his crew began dying of a disease we know today as the deficiency disease called scurvy.
Relations between the Indigenous and the Europeans were by that time strained; nonetheless the indigenous people healed Cartier's crew with their method of using L-ascorbate ("vitamin C") in the form of a tea made from the
Arbor Vitae tree.
Despite being saved by them, Cartier rewarded Indigenous people by taking a dozen as hostage to Europe and upon explaining the information of this medicinal treatment in France, doctors simply replied, "what could we possibly learn from savages?"
Shortly after that the British Navy proved citrus fruit would prevent and cure scurvy.
Cartierism is alive today in numerous examples from
Aloe vera to zinc.
The
obscurity of Nurse
Rene Caisse's exceptional impact on patients' health by use of
indigenous medicine is the product of Cartierism.
