Bricolage is a term coined by Claude Lévi-Strauss (p. 1908) to denote the way in which the so-called savage or primitive mind orients itself in the world, especially to natural objects and events, on the one hand, and to social beings. and their relationship, on the other.
What distinguishes this way is its reliance on improvisational (ad hoc) and short-lived responses, as well as broad analogies (e.g., totemism). These analogies surprise the “civilized” mind (the mind formed by literacy and technology) as fanciful and overly voluminous. But such an inference is also a kind of justification for the missing logic by which we can explain the way in which illiterate, non-technological cultures orient themselves to emerging events and objects in the flow of life. The short-sighted or skillful (bricoleur) is no less logical or rational in his approach than a highly educated engineer.
Instead of condemning or denying the approach taken in his observations of “primitive” cultures, Lévi-Strauss tried to explain it. His concept of bricolage and its basis in the image of the Bricoleur are central to this experience.
