Apparent cultural differences caused stereotyping of black Africans, and resulted in reports filled with very ˜flawed' information about this era. Descriptions of black African behavior from the age of slavery successfully show how limited Europeans were as subjective observers and as analysts of non-European behaviors on European ground.
Social behaviors and stereotyping were the main obstacles in objective description of black Africans. Whereas Columbus compared the newfound land of Caribbean to his homeland, observing how "its fields and trees are like those of Spain and that in a net they had made the crew caught many fish like those of Spain "5, records describing black Africans were focusing more on exaggerating the difference between Europeans and Africans, refusing to acknowledge any similarity. The reason for this is stereotypical thinking of Europeans that Africans' "black skin was almost uniformly condemned "6 and equated with their inferior legal status, meaning that they were destined to be slaves7. Stereotyping resulted in change of social behavior of Europeans, as people with black skin provided a cultural context for prejudice " "sneezing when a black African appeared was in Spain a primitive practice for warding off the devil "8. Therefore, the records on the Caribbean inhabitants can be considered to be more accurate, as Columbus was able to objectively observe the behavior of inhabitants in their natural environment.
Although Europeans depicted Caribbean and African civilizations differently, there were many similarities between the two. Pagan customs defined everything different from European norms at the time, but were shared by both African and Caribbean culture. Whereas for the Europeans "wearing clothes was not a matter of choice but a sign of civility "9, it was common for Africans and Caribbean inhabitants to only hide their private parts.