Are The Tuskens (and other aliens ) Just Animals ?

I was having a discussion in the thread about Haydn replacing Shaw thread and we got onto the slaughter of the Tuskens and the issue of whether the Tuskens are animals came up , unfortunately it's not exactly on-topic there so I thought I'd continue it here .

This is a post by Sunnin-Onna-Rock which rather surprised me :


Non-human is essentially animal. If we were in the Galaxy Far, Far Away, I wouldn't say to go around killing every alien in sight. But if you did kill an alien/animal, I don't know that I would see it as any different from killing deer, racoons, or squirrels in our world. Especially if the alien/animal in question was a Tusken Raider. Does that make sense?

I don't see how Tuskens can be defined as animal since they make fire , have language , make clothes , operate machinery etc.
And the other aliens in GFFA have mastered space travel built cities , have religion ,culture etc. etc. so I certainly wouldn't describe them as animals either .

But what do the rest of you think ?

 

Personally I see humans and aliens as animals. I don't elevate humans to some higher plane like many seem to.

We just happen to be able to communicate with each other better than we can with animals, so we assume we are the $^%&, and every other animal out there is just not intelligent.

 

I don't think of non-humans as equivelant to animals. If the species is sentiant, they are beings, if its non-sentiant, they are animals.

The Tuskan Raiders are actually a sort of mix; some are humans, and some are aliens. But its a single culture, so both the humans and non-humans are Tuskans.

Besides, the 'non-human = animals' thing gets a little fuzzy when some of these are able to interbreed with humans. And often the half-human offspring sport odd vestigal appendages on their face or even small horns sprouting on the sides of their heads.

 

They are technically sentient. I sort of think of them as the Native American-type people of Tatooine. Just as it used to be was Native Americans, they are misunderstood, pushed away from their lands, treated as sub-human, have limited technology, "strange" customs, and remain forced into virtual exile. However, on their part, they possess no effort to try and integrate with the settlers, to communicate, or to understand the other group of individuals. There's a really huge communication gap going on between the two, and no one seems to want to resolve.

Bear in mind that this is a very rough generalization and comparison.

 

Please, for the sake of everyone reading this thread, do not even attempt to compare what happened to native americans (or rather, what you think you know about them) to the tusken raiders.

 

Why not? The Tuskens are clearly meant to be analogous to American Indians, in the space-western setting of Star Wars.

 

And westerns have hardly ever been accurate in depicting native americans. If the intent is compare it to westerns, the poster should attribute it as such. Otherwise, things like:

Have no place in a discussion trying to link them to real life native americans. At least, not to anyone who bothered to pick up a history book beyond the ones issued to them in high school. I really don't want to derail this thread, but if people want to say such ridiculous things there are plenty of places on the internet to do so without spoiling the enjoyment of a Star Wars forum.

 

At least, not to anyone who bothered to pick up a history book beyond the ones issued to them in high school.

I love history. History is my second love, after Star Wars.

I really don't want to derail this thread, but if people want to say such ridiculous things there are plenty of places on the internet to do so without spoiling the enjoyment of a Star Wars forum.

How was comparing the Tuskens to Native Americans ridiculous? Both have a rich culture and heritage that was ignored by settlers who tried to make some existance out of the lands they came to. Native Americans either traded with the settlers, or fought with them. They either formed an effective communication, or didn't bother to try. The same is true for the Tuskens.

 

Very well. My apologies if I misinterpreted what you said, the wording of the first post felt questionable to me. I'm also sorry if I came off hostile...would you believe this is the third forum I've visited today, out of my normal forums, where I've come across something about native americans? Perhaps I was just riled up from the other two.

 

Humans are also animals.

 

Very well. My apologies if I misinterpreted what you said, the wording of the first post felt questionable to me. I'm also sorry if I came off hostile...

Hey, it's no problem! I figured it was just a miscommunication. I wasn't bashing Tuskens or Native Americans, and I knew you weren't either.

would you believe this is the third forum I've visited today, out of my normal forums, where I've come across something about native americans? Perhaps I was just riled up from the other two.

Three forums mentioning Native Americans? Now that's a record...

Humans are also animals.

Good point! But I believe the term "animals" is used in a derogatory context here. As in "less-than-human."

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention...

In a Clone Wars comic, A'Sharad Hett mentions that his mother was not really a Tusken raider, but raised to think that she was one. Tusken raiders are not genetically human, as they cannot have children with human beings.

 

A Ralph McQuarrie painting depicts Tuskens as having canine-like features.

 

In zoology and anthropology, a distinction is often made between humans, which are part of kingdom animalia, and non-human animals, which is what most of us mean when we use the word "animal". The "non-human" part is implied and understood.

In brief, humans are animals, but humans have many features which distinguish them from non-human animals.

Some of these distinguishing human characteristics, as noted in Juan-King's opening post, are complex tool use, fire mastery, textile making, shelter construction, articulate language.

Whereas Tusken Raiders are depicted in the films ('ANH', TPM and AOTC) as possessing all of the above listed qualities, as well as some kind of mechanical knowledge, they cannot be said to be animals in the non-human sense of the term.

It should also be noted that for the purposes of this discussion, I've included human-like alien species into the umbrella of the term human, since Tuskens, for example, are visibly humanoid in morphology (body shape and motion) and, if biologically real and extant, would probably be classified under genus Homo.

 

And quite right you are. Humans, contrary to popular belief, are not "more evolved" (meaningless term) than any other animal. We did however get better evolutionary breaks which gives us our place in nature.

In the end, we are animals to the core.

 

WmeraldBlade, please see my post, directly above yours, for a response.

 

Yes I like your post Merlin. I am not a biologist myself, but I can tell that the topic can be confused even amongst biologists. Semantics come into play, like when talking about something being "more evolved". I enjoy reading about evolution and I think that The Ancestor's Tale (by Dawkins) puts evolution into perspective.

 

Sentiment = beings

 

aye - less bee's in bonnets eh? The original post was pretty clear.

Anakins and others treatment of the Tuskens was deplorable. That was kinda the point.

 

Tusken Raiders have always been part of a Star Wars theme in which the viewer sees a less advanced, native people having to cope with a more advanced, off world people. Lucas played this theme out to the greatest degree with the native Gungans in Episode I and then again with the native Ewoks in Episode VI, and this theme is also played out in the remaining episodes, albeit to a lesser degree. In Episode II it's the native sandpeople. In Episode III it's the native wookies and the two native people on Utapau. In Episode IV it's the native sandpeople again. In Episode V it's the native wampas.

There is even an episode of "The Clone Wars" called "Trespass" that is about the conflict between the less advanced, native people and the more advanced, off world people. Notice how the setting of "Trespass" is just like the ice world from "The Empire Strikes Back" and the characters even wear similar cloths.

 

So was the Tuskens' treatment of the moisture farmers.

 

An excellent point. There's a huge layer of distrust and a lack of communication that keeps these two groups of sentient beings from living in peace with each other.