Bricoleur fr. the thinking, the able.
The anthropologist, and structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss built his significant and influential concept of bricolage from the characteristic manner in which the artist works. This manner includes, above all, a superficial acquaintance with this and that, without one taking the activity too seriously, with inconsistent sequence, but with keen attention to some immediate situation. It also includes the use of any materials and tools that are at hand. In short, this manner is improvisational. It differs markedly from the highly specialized engineering work of technology specialists who routinely use special tools and create new materials as part of their work (for example, the construction of the space shuttle). The mind of “primitive” people is much more like that of the Bricoleur, while that of “civilized” people (shaped by literacy and technology) resembles that of an engineer.
The latter, however, does not mean that “primitive” people are unreasonable or lack logic, but that their logic (or form of rationality) would be best understood in terms of engineering, but by a Bricoleur-type modus operandi.
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