The relationship between power and identity can be defined through shared social constructs requiring a shared ideology. Thus, authority structures and political dominance are based not only on rituals but also on some form of agreement and exchange. Examples are recurring in times and geographies: from the Maya and Aztecs to the modern Asian Nations.
The fermented, roasted, and ground beans of the Theobroma cacao have been consumed by pre-Olmec people since 1900 BC; later, the Aztecs and the Maya used the beans as a currency and a valued beverage. Indeed, the drink called Xocoatll was employed in religious rituals because of its special aphrodisiac and strength properties.
Questions about how religion grows, diffuses, and affects communities and cultures are linked to geographical factors: sacred geographies relate to spatial variations, the global pattern of religion, and their interplay shed lights on the properties of human persistence, tolerance, and motivation with respect to people and their belief systems.