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Do you mean their descendants?
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Disclaimer: This blog post focuses on a new piece of research from Rethink Priorities. I was not involved with the funding or execution of this research, and therefore write this piece merely as a consumer. However, I am the Executive Director of Giving Green and a board member of Rethink Priorities, and acknowledge that these affiliations may bias my...
I am writing up two charity ideas I’ve wanted to investigate, but haven’t been able to, in the hopes someone will investigate them further. If you end up investigating either, I'd be most interested to see what conclusions you come to!
Vulture preservation as a global health intervention
Since the mid 1990's the vulture population in India has been rapidly declining. The reason is due to a few chemicals which are fed to livestock, which is highly poisonous to vultures.
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Michael Nielsen has a beautiful new essay on moral imagination: the ability humans have to 'develop and transmit new notions of good action, indeed, even new kinds of good'.
As examples, he gives:
* Hammurabi's creation of a code of laws (in 1754 BCE) and his justification of his rule not in terms of divine or hereditary right, but by the delivery of justice to his citizens.
* St Gregory of Nyssa's...
Recent opportunities to take action
If you really mean "ancestors" rather than "descendents", my best guess would be the Peruvian pre-colombian peoples. In their worldview, there were three worlds: Hanan Pacha (heaven), Kay Pacha (our world, which "mother Earth" or "Pachamama" is a part of), and Uku Pacha (the underworld). The dead interacted with the living in many ways, mainly related to fertility, such as fertilizing the soil for agriculture and being the craddle of new generations. For these reasons, they cared deeply about preparing the passing of deceased leaders and maintaining values and rituals (e.g., sacrifices) to keep their ancestors happy.
Another guess would be the ancient Egyptians, who also had elaborate rituals for the dead and deities associated with the deceased. I don't know much more about them, though.
Sorry I did mean descendants, this is quite interesting though!