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Acali

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1973 social experiment

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The Acali expedition (or Acali experiment [1] or the Sex Raft [2]) was a 1973 social experiment that aimed to investigate interpersonal relationships in conditions of limited space and social isolation.[3][2][4] The experiment was organized by Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genovés, who had previously been a crew member of Thor Heyerdahl's Ra expedition.

The raft had a complement of eleven people: five men and six women. Genovés believed that making difference in sexual count increases the possible outcome for the experiment's aim. Genovés believed that the crew members would turn to violence and aggression, but during the experiment the participants showed a restraint towards aggression. This frustrated Genovés and led him to start to try to create conflict, and at one point he took command of the float. Despite these attempts, the group remained peaceful.[5]

The raft left Las Palmas, Spain, on 12 May 1973 and took 101 days to drift across the Atlantic Ocean and reach Cozumel, Mexico, with a single stopover in Barbados. Frequently dubbed the "Sex Raft " by the media,[2] it was the subject of a 2018 documentary film The Raft, by Marcus Lindeen. The expression 'sex raft' came from the newspapers, as well as focus on sexual activities on the raft. This angered Genovés, and he was especially hurt by some of his long-time colleagues saying the publicity of the raft is hurting the university.[6]

The Raft<br>[edit]

The name of the raft, Acali, comes from the Nahuatl language and means "the house on the water".[7][8]

The raft was built specifically for the experiment. It had a steel hull, and it was 12 metres in length with 7 metres beam and 2 metres in depth. The cabin measured 4 × 4 metres. It was designed by José Antonio Mandri and Colin Mudie, and it was built in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.[9]

The raft had no motor, it had no boats following it and it deliberately had no way of turning back.[6]

Background of the experiment<br>[edit]

Santiago Genovés was a scientist studying aggression, violence and friction between people. He personally was aboard a plane in November 1972 that was hijacked and taken to Cuba, which inspired him. He believed that in crisis situations humans would show their "true behavior", which was the way we could learn about human nature. This led to him trying to figure out a way to somehow replicate a situation where group of people would be isolated from the rest of the world.[6] He had also previously been an earlier participant on the Ra (1969) and Ra II (1970) expeditions, Thor Heyerdahl's ethnohistorical attempts to prove that prehistoric civilizations could have crossed the Atlantic by means of papyrus-constructed boats. He had been intrigued with the incidents of friction that he had witnessed, and he believed further studies of human behaviour under stressful conditions were justified.[10]

Characteristics of the experiment<br>[edit]

The experiment was sponsored by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and by Mexican television station Channel 13.

Participants had to sign a document in which...