\bree-koh-LAHZH; brih-\, noun: Construction or something constructed by using whatever materials happen to be available
(French, 'doing odd jobs') A characteristic (according to C Levi-Strauss) of the early human mind, in contrast to modern scientific thinking But bricolage is entirely rational (i e not pre-rational) in its own way He introduced the term in The Savage Mind A bricoleur is one who improvises and and uses any means or materials which happen to be lying around in order to tackle a task: 'The bricoleur is adept at executing a great number of diverse tasks; but unlike the engineer, he does not subordinate each of them to the availability of raw materials and tools, conceptualized and procured specifically for this project; his instrumental universe is closed, and the rule of his game is to make do with the means at hand ' In the making of myth, bricolage is the use of whatever happens to be 'lying around,' so that myth is both rational and improvisatory
A term introduced by L i-Strauss [315,317] to designate a manner of construction that relies on improvisional (or ad hoc) and makeshift responses and far-flung analogies for problem-solving and to explain the world In a general sense, bricolage is the process of creating something not as a matter of calculated choice and use of whatever materials are technically best-adapted to a clearly predetermined purpose, but rather in a dialogue with the materials and means of execution In such a dialogue, the materials which are ready-to-hand may suggest adaptive courses of action, and the initial aim may be modified