Bricolage Levi Strauss

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Bricolage


Bricolage is the skill of using whatever is at hand and recombining them to create something new. According to Levi-Strauss, 

 "The bricoleur is someone who uses 'the means at hand,' that is, the instruments he finds at his disposition around him, those which are already there, which had not been specially conceived with an eye to the operation for which they are to be used and to which one tries by trial and error to adapt them, not hesitating to change them whenever it appears necessary."


    In his essay Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences Levi-Strauss compares the working of the bricoleur and the engineer. The bricoleur, who is the “savage mind”, puts already existing things together in new ways, and makes do with whatever is at hand.


What Levi-Strauss points out here is that signs already in existence are used for purposes that they were originally not meant for. As opposed to the bricoleur, the engineer, who is the “scientific mind”, is a true craftsman in that he deals with projects in their entirety, taking into account the availability of materials, and creating new tools. He creates things from scratch after sourcing all the raw. Drawing a parallel, Levi-Strauss argues that mythology functions more like the bricoleur, whereas modern western science works more like an engineer.

    The concept of bricolage initiates a new way to talk about systems and structures instead of falling back to old methods. It also inspires creativity and originality, making possible new ways of putting things together.

  • The English equivalent of the French word “Bricolage” is DIY (Do-it-Yourself )








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