The Acali Experiment

The Acali was a raft which was used in the Acali Expedition or Acali Experiment.^[1] It has also been nicknamed the Sex Raft.^[2] The raft had a complement of eleven people: five men and six women. It 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. The experiment was conceived by Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genovés (who had previously been a crew member of Thor Heyerdahl's Ra expedition) to investigate interpersonal relationships in conditions of limited space and social isolation.^[3][2][4] The participants showed a restraint towards aggression which created frustration within 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.

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