According to the ancient beliefs of these Tsotsil villages burping cleanses the soul: each burp is an escaping evil spirit. Naturally, everyone tries their best to burp throughout the long ceremonies, and those men and women who have special religious responsibilities are expected to burp louder and longer than mere laymen.

Prior to the arrival of fizzy soft drinks to the Chiapanecan highlands the villagers spent hours before every ceremony drinking water and swallowing air. Now Pepsi helps them expel more demons than was ever thought possible. The revered Pepsi bottles are everywhere, and, as a sacrament in the local churches (they never were strictly Catholic anyways) it seems to have effectively replaced wine, which just cannot produce that many sacred burps.

Is this a worrying tendency, the sudden proliferation of evil spirits among the rural Tsotsils of Chiapas, Mexico? Or were the demons always there, waiting for a powerful new drink to bring the burps out? Should we thank Pepsi-Co for their unexpected contribution to the spiritual wellbeing of impoverished Mayan farmers, or curse them for making a fortune (well, probably a very small one, and not altogether expected) exploiting an ancient, disappearing religion?