RA I and RA II: Twice across the Atlantic on a Papyrus Raft as an Anthropological and Behavioral Experiment

RA I AND RA II TWICE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC ON A PAPYRUS RAFT AS AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL EXPERIMENT SANTIAGO GENOVÉS* All advances ofscientific understanding, at every level, begin with a speculative adventure, an imaginative preconception of what might be true—a preconception which always, and necessarily, goes a little way (sometimes a long way) beyond anything which we have logical orfactual authority to believe in. It is the invention ofa possible world, or ofa tinyfraction ofthat world. The conjecture is then exposed to criticism to find out whether or not that imagined world is anything like the real one. Scientific reasoning is therefore at all levels an interaction between two episodes of thought—a dialogue between two voices, the one imaginative and the other critical; a dialogue, ifyou like, between the possible and the actual, between proposal and disposal, conjecture and criticism, between what might be true and what is infact the case. In this conception ofthe scientificprocess, imagination andcriticism are integrally combined. Imagination without criticism may burst out into a comic profusion of grandiose and silly notions. Critical reasoning, considered alone, is barren.—Sir Peter Medawar [i] Synthesis Papyrus reed boats built according to ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian reliefs and paintings were tested in the Atlantic Ocean and observations were made on the behavior of the crew. Foreword Anthropology has multivarious interests in the nature, behavior, and accomplishments of man. These expedition-experiments, which try to reconcile papyrus, totora, general and particular anthropological resemblances on both sides of the Atlantic, sea currents, trade winds, and human behavior, are in the center ofanthropological research. * Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Sección de Antropología, Torre de Humanidades, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico 20, D.F. 538 Santiago Genovés · RA I and RA II Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Summer 1971 This is a report of the two RA expedition-experiments which aimed to cross the Atlantic in a papyrus reed boat. The complete research program was, and still is, ofa much wider nature. A number ofobservations are ofinterest on both sides ofthe Atlantic (they concern mainly Morocco and the highlands of Peru and Bolivia). They have also to do with the behavior of those who built the second raft as well as the behavior of those who sailed it across the Atlantic. However, these data are ofsecondary importance when compared with the wealth of ethnological and archaeological data obtained. I have stepped out of my usual area of research as I sometimes do [2] to better understand a subbranch of anthropology. Besides, I am not a conventional man. Since 1864 when the first Congress of Americanists took place at Nancy, the main objective ofthis group ofanthropologists and historians has been to study the sequence and links ofpre-Columbian culturaldevelopments rather than America's origins. The RA projects were, without any parti-pris, designed to contribute to this field ofresearch. I. Anthropological Possibility ofPre-Columbian Contacts A. Introduction The final phases of the expedition-experiments RA I and RA II (i.e., attempts to cross the Atlantic on a papyrus raft from east to west) started on May 25, 1969 and on May 17, 1970, respectively. The purpose was to observe the behavior of the raft, built after Egyptian mural paintings and Mesopotamian reliefs of about 4,000 years ago. A second purpose was to observe the behavior of seven men (RA I) and of eight men (RA II) on a raft. None of the participating scientists were professional sailors or otherwise habituated to the sea. Ofthe seven persons on board RA I, six were among the eight on board RA II. These individuals were ofdifferent nationalities, social and economic backgrounds, languages, religions, and cultures. RA I was built in Egypt by three Tchadians, two being from the Buduma tribe from BoI on Lake Tchad. The building followed models from the Cairo Museum and required seven weeks. The raft was 15 m long, 5 m wide, and 1.4 m thick. It was the integration of twenty-two central-body papyrus rolls and two lateral rolls. It left the port of Safi in Morocco, and after fifty-five days and 2,720 nautical miles it arrived at 539 roughly 400...