bricolage (anthropological concept)
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The concept of using found materials to resolve problems and create things. The idea was first described in a 1969 publication by the social anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, drawing an analogy between how a bricoleur, or man-of-all-work, uses whatever tools and materials are at hand to construct projects, and how primitive human beings, when presented with new problems, did not think up new concepts but reordered and adapted existing ideas to accommodate a new set of circumstances. The concept has been borrowed by thinkers and writers in other disciplines, such as education, art theory, law, and economics, in discussions of how creative artists, teachers, and others make adaptive reuse of existing ideas, materials, and practices to deal with new situations.