What are the motifs in Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge by Terence McKenna?

Culture is a recurring idea in the book, and McKenna argues that culture is a matter of habit. By this, McKenna means that beliefs are hereditary, passed on from one generation of society to the next, but culture can also be dynamic.

McKenna uses several different habits to demonstrate how it shapes culture. Caffeine consumption is a habit acquired by many Americans. The drinking of coffee is seldom for the taste, but for the stimulant properties of caffeine. Caffeine rituals, or habits, such as the coffee break are widely accepted and seldom shunned. In that sense, human beings have created caffeine consumption as part of reasonable culture.