Thomas Huxley suggested that many Europeans bore traces of Neanderthal ancestry, but associated Neanderthal characteristics with primitivism, writing that since they "belong to a stage in the development of the human species, antecedent to the differentiation of any of the existing races, we may expect to find them in the lowest of these races, all over the world, and in the early stages of all races".
Thomas Huxley sugerirao je da mnogi Europljani nose tragove neandertalskog porijekla, no neandertalske karakteristike asocirao je s primitivizmom, pišući da „one pripadaju jednom stupnju razvoja ljudske vrste, koje prethodi diferencijaciji bilo koje postojeće rase, pa možemo očekivati da ćemo ih pronaći u najnižoj od tih rasa, posvuda u svijetu, i u ranim stadijima svih rasa.”