Did the Neanderthals have the capacity to receive the Breath of God?  Were the people in the land of Nod where Cain went--to the place where he found a wife--have the capacity to receive the Breath of God?  Did the people that came out of Africa 40,000 years ago have the capacity to receive the Breath of God?  I have no idea.  God didn't tell us.  All that I know is that Adam was made in the Image of God and Seth was made in the Image of Adam.  And Adam had the capacity to hold God's breath.  Which means that since Seth was made in Adam's image he, too, had the capacity to hold God's breath.

And in addition to that, in Genesis 6: 1-4 we find two kinds of human categories:  The sons of God and the daughters of men.  "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."  The two categories were "The sons of God,"  and "The daughters of men".  The sons of God passed on to their children the capacity of their fathers.  The capacity to hold the Breath of God.

The only problem was that none of these people actually held God's breath.  That would mean that they were alive.  And God said, in the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will die.  Either God lied, or Adam died.  Of course, God didn't lie.  Adam died spiritually and that is what he passes on to his children. His grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, and to us.  Spiritual death.

Paul  put it this way:  Romans 5:12 "...as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; ...so death passed on all men, for that all have sinned; "   And when Paul was writing to the Colossians he said, "And you, being dead in your sins..."  he tells them that even though they look alive in the flesh, they are dead in the Spirit.

So we know that without God's Spirit a person isn't alive at all.  They are dead.

But God has a plan.