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The name "Bricolage" was not drawn directly from the common usage of the term in French, but rather from the first chapter of "The Savage Mind," by the famed French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. In that famous discussion of scientific thought vs. mythical thought — of science vs. "the science of the concrete" — Lévi-Strauss declares, "Mythical thought is therefore a kind of intellectual 'bricolage.'"

Bricolage is the product of a bricoleur, a kind of handyman who assembles the fruits of his labors from the tools he has at hand. Similarly, mythical thought uses the extant concepts available to the cultural bricoleur to shape the world of cultural understanding. In other words, one's understanding and interpretation of the world and its events derives from assembling new interpretations based on existing cultural (Lévi-Strauss would say "structural") symbols. "Signs allow and even require the interposing and incorporation of a certain amount of human culture into reality," Lévi-Strauss writes. Thus signs (or symbols, and modern anthropologists are more likely to call them) are the building blocks of cultural comprehension.

Similarly, content is assembled in the Bricolage Content Management System by drawing on extant elements to create a new end product. Element administrators function as Lévi-Straussian "scientists" in that they create new symbols (elements) that document editors — as new media bricoleurs — draw upon to assemble and manage new structures of meaning (content).

For those who may find this explanation too much a stretch, we fall back on the meaning of the term "bricolage" as it is commonly used in English, rather than French. For our French users, who see the name and immediately think, "big hack," note that typical English definition, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, is simply, "something made or put together using whatever materials happen to be available." This definition nicely describes how Bricolage documents are built from the elements defined for them.

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Copyright (c) 2001-2002. About.com. Changes Copyright (c) 2001-2003 Kineticode, Inc. and others.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Neither the name of the About.com nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

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### Bricolage is maintained by:

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### The current development team consists of:

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### The original developers were:

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### Emeritus Developers:

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### The online help was written by:

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### Folks who have submitted patches include:

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### Friends who have spotted bugs include:

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### Bricolage's translation team:

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### Others who contributed to its support and development:

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