Crew of experience known as “sex raft”
Spanish-Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genoço was flying to Mexico City, where he lived since he was 15, when he arrived in the country as a refugee of the Spanish Civil War.
He had boarded the city of Monterrey after participating in a conference on the history of violence, when suddenly a group took over the aircraft, demanding the release of some companions.
“It was too good to be true… Imagine the irony. I, a scientist who has spent his career to study violent behavior, end up in a kidnapped plane, ”he wrote later, one of the world’s great references in physical anthropology, a doctor of anthropology from the University of Cambridge in the UK, who taught at the autonomous university of Mexico.
The kidnapping inspired the researcher to create a similar situation that would serve as a laboratory to study human behavior.
Water in the water
With the sea as a perfect insulating means, the anthropologist has been in charge of preparing his experience.
“Thanks to laboratory animal tests we know that aggression can be triggered by putting different types of rats in a limited space. I want to find out if it happens with humans. ”
The anthropologist then built a 12 x 7 meter boat with a small candle. The booth mediates 4 x 3.7 meters, with “space for each other’s body, lying down. You can’t stand up“He wrote in the magazine of Universidad de Mexico in 1974.
And both the shower and the toilet were outdoors, in the sight of the crewmates. He dubbed the raft of Acali, which in Nauatle language means “house in the water.”
In it, 10 people would embark on to make a trip that would last 101 dayswithout engine, electricity, nor “boats to accompany, or possibility of retreating”.
“Ten unknown brave”
To find volunteers, Genoço has published an announcement in several international newspapers – hundreds of people responded.
Chose four men and six women – only four of them single and almost all with children, of different nationalities, religions and social contexts, selected “to Create tensions in the group“.
Among them was the captain: the Swedish Maria Björnstam, single, 30, whom Genozo invited to be “the first woman in the world to be named captain of a vessel.”
It was not the only woman he designated a dominant function.
Genoço decided to give important roles to them all, leaving For men insignificant tasks.
“I wonder if it gives power to women will lead to less violence. Or if there will be more,” he wrote.
On May 13, 1973, the Jangada Acali left Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, being launched on the high seas like an island to float lazyly towards its destination: the Mexican island of Cozumel.
Sex inside and out
Together with Ali, he also wondered the imagination of public opinion, instigated by the press.
Despite not having the cameras that years later would show all the details of similar situations in reality shows, the media took the opportunity to Create Mirabolante Stories based in the few minutes of radio contact with the vessel.
The newspapers stamped headlines like “The orgies in the raft of love“Or” The Secret of the Raft of Love ” – which talked about a supposed secret radio code, in the event of an emergency in the” raft of passion. “
And although reality on board was not like the newspapers painted, sex was very present in the anthropologist’s experiences menu.
“Scientific studies with monkeys have shown that there is a Connection between violence and sexualitywhere most conflicts between males are a consequence of the availability of ovulate females. ”
“To see if the same happens among humans, I selected sexually attractive participants. And how sex is linked to guilt and shameI put Bernardo, a Catholic priest of Angola, to see what happens. ”
In the vessel, although several members of the crew had sex, this aspect of human behavior did not generate tensions or hostilities Note Worthy – Unless you took into account the discomfort felt by the participants when they discovered, at the end of the trip, the lascivious narrative of the tabloids.
The observed observer
However, sex was just one of the facets of an experience whose goals were considered higher – as Genoço himself confirmed when questioned by Captain Maria before the group:
“I told them that I wanted to find out how to create peace on earth.”
To achieve this feat, it was essential to understand the aggressiveness of humans.
However, over the days, the only indication of violent behavior that manifested itself in that floating laboratory was before a shark – “To my big surprise, there was no sexual jealousy, nor conflicts between the participants.”
After 51 days of coexistence, Genoço wrote frustrated:
“No one seems to remember that we are here trying to find an answer to the most important question of our time: Can we live without wars?”
It took time to realize that their methods were effectively having an effect: causing irritation, causing animosity and awakening aggression. But surprisingly, not the way I had imagined.
“I realized that the only one who had shown any kind of aggressiveness or violence on the ferry it was me.”
And that’s not all. It was also the only target of the dark feelings of others.
“Murder”
In his eagerness to protect the project, Genoço ended up behaving as “a dictator,” according to Björnstam, to the point that at one point assume the command and declare himself captain.
“It was difficult support your psychological violence“Added Japanese Eisuke Yamaki.
Participants imagined several strategies: from throwing it “accidentally” to the sea to injecting drugs that would cause a cardiac arrest-“with the hand of all holding the syringe.”
But nothing serious happened.
The problems with Genique were diplomatically resolvedlike all the other disagreements they had during the trip.
When the ferry arrived in Mexico, everyone on board – including Genozo – were kept isolated for one week and undergoing a series of tests with psychiatrists, psychologists and doctors.
The anthropologist went through difficult times during the exams and then with the criticism that was made to the experience. But he moved on with his prestigious career as a physical anthropologist, his floating adventures (later, sailed alone to “know yourself”) and their abundant production of articles and books, among many other things.
For volunteers, the trip started and ended as an adventure. Although they lived some difficult times, there were no quarrels in the group, quite the opposite, and they created a bond that remains to this day.
