Role Switching at Sea

When the raft Acali (Aztec for house in the water) sets out across the Atlantic this month, it will be captained by Maria Bjornstram, 30, a lithe Swedish blonde. Six other key-command posts will also be held by women; all of the secondary positions will be filled by men. This strange odyssey, scheduled to begin in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and wind up in Yucatan, Mexico, has all of the earmarks of a frivolous publicity stunt. In fact, it is a serious experiment in role reversal and cultural conflict conceived by Santiago Genoves, a Mexican anthropologist who went along on Thor Heyerdahl's papyrus boat Ra expeditions.

"I am neither a Women's Lib advocate nor a pussy cat," says Genoves. His aim is to study friction between the sexes and to determine how human beings from diverse cultures and classes behave when they live at close quarters. Because the raft measures only 36 ft. by 20 ft., the trip should yield ample material for study. Genoves will go along to take notes on what he sees, and the voyage will be filmed by a cameraman for Mexico's state TV channel 13, which will pick up the $160,000 tab for the experiment.

The Acali's multinational crew was screened by Anne Turner, a psychologist based in Paris. Most of the recruits are married--though not to each other. Women crew members include a navigator and a radio operator, both Americans; two doctors, one Israeli and one Czechoslovak; a French diver, who will be responsible for repairs to the raft; and an Algerian oceanographer. The men include a Greek who will do the cooking and a cameraman who has not yet been chosen, along with a South Vietnamese photographer, a Uruguayan anthropologist and an Angolan priest, all of whom will have little to do but enjoy the scenery--and perform a variety of secondary tasks at the bidding of their female superiors.

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