ABSTRACT
Alfred Haddon was an important zoologist and anthropologist, and curator of the Horniman ethnographical museum in London. In order to understand the nature of design, Haddon decided to study primitive art forms, as they were seen as apparently less complex. Haddon saw the biological study of art in two forms. The first was the use of the comparative method which allowed the general evolution of designs to reveal the essential unity of man, and second, in the examination of the arts of a region or people, the development of designs could be studied in detail. Finally, Haddon explored the reasons why objects are decorated and concluded that the notions of art, information, wealth, and religion all reflected the needs of peoples. Art being the pleasure of form, line, and colour; information being a medium of communication; wealth as art reflecting status and power; while religion creates visual forms that are expressive of ‘sympathetic relations with unseen powers’.
