Saga The Origin of (Star Wars) Species

Twi'leks. Dathomirians. Pau'ans. Tusken Raiders. That death stick guy. No need to reference Wookieepedia or reach for your visual dictionary, I'm talking about the races in the Star Wars films that closely resemble humans in addition to some distinctive physical trait - the 'Trek' aliens, if you will - and whether their occasional presence indicates an unspoken backstory.

To what extent should we consider these groups descendents or offshoots of ancient colonial humanity? If language is used as a storytelling tool throughout the saga to illustrate human dominance (Neimodians speak English amongst themselves, Anakin/Watto and Jango/Boba switch between English and Huttese, so on and so forth), are physical resemblances evidence of a similar but unspoken subplot? Do certain alien races in Star Wars have a common origin?

More thoughts: Twi'leks, Togruta and Palpatine's senate aid all have human faces, tentacles extending from their heads and bright skin colours. Like humans, Twi'leks are seen enslaved on Tatooine (controlled by nonhumanoid species) and in positions of power on Coruscant. Podracing is said to be impossible for humans, and apart from Anakin all of the species shown participating in the podrace have nonhumanoid physical configurations.

Thoughts? Feelings? Epithets? 90's pulp fiction novels? Discuss.

 

Basic, not English though I wouldn't use a common language as a basis for genealogy. Basic is the most widely spoken language in the galaxy, so I'm guessing that it's a necessity to learn as opposed to a native tongue. Huttese is it's underworld equivalent, which is pretty much vital to learn in the outer rim.
Tuskens and Jawas are said to have had a common ancestor, and I'm pretty sure Neimoidians and Duros are cousins too.

 

To me, thinking about those sorts of things in a logical and scientific manner undoes what Star Wars is: a fantasy. It's a mish-mash of Sci-Fi iconography with fantasy storytelling, and for that reason trying to explain everything kind of ruins the awesome deliberateness with which Lucas put his world together.

That being said, I will entertain this notion. In the most recent Halo game, an idea was explored that perhaps we, meaning the people's of earth stretching back to earliest known history, are not the first human civilization to have existed. That millennia upon millennia ago, Humans were a spacefaring species far beyond our current form. So perhaps, upon discovering extragalactic space travel, we humans of earth were "left" here, along with other humans on other planets in other galaxies. Perhaps those "original humans" intentionally left a large colony of humans on coruscant knowing it had the most potential to become a center of control in a greater galactic society?

 

Humans likely originated on Coruscant, from where they were taken away and enslaved by Celestials and Rakata, also send generation and sleeper ships to settle new worlds until the invention of hyperdrive. All this culmulated in Humans becoming the most numerous and important species in the galaxy.

Another theory is Celestials having created Humans through genetic engineering seeding them on various planets mostly in the Core.

KOTOR suggests they lived on Tatooine until a more developed species took them away but left the later ancestors of Sand People on planet. Now, after Dawn of the Jedi' release, this theory became very unlikely, 'cause the first issue shows Tatooine populated by Kumumgah (ancestors of the Tusken) and becoming invaded by the Infinite Empire ~25,700 BBY. Well, still possible if the Humans were taken away much earlier with Kumumgah descendants of those left behind or another species evolved from a common ancestor.

The Tion Cluster's inhabitants make the claim, too, that the cradle of Humanity is lacoted in their stellar cluster. Humans lived their since min. 27,500 BBY.

A dozen other worlds such as Alsakan and Corella made the claim to be the homeworld of mankind among them.

Now, what you mean are near-Humans. Their origins are very inconsistent within the Star Wars universe. Most common theory is that they evolved from Humans which colonized new planets. This means for example, that Humans from Coruscant settled Csilla, Mirial, Arkania, Iridoria and the colonists mutated into Chiss, Mirials, Arkanians and Zabraks. A second possibility is that they were created by Celestials, Rakata or Mother Machine from genetic material of pure-Humans and brought to their later homeworlds (for whatever reason).

Pseudo-Humans is the name of species completely unrelated to pure-Humans, but looking very akin to them. The reason for their appearance is unknown, but out- and in-universe. TF.N Technical Commentaries assumes the universal appearance of Humans everywhere in the galaxy changes the evolution of younger races, don't know how old they're (no offense), according to the New Essential Guides this is not an option anymore, because this species originated on their homeworlds before ever a Human or near-Human visited it.

My personal guess is that pure-Humans evolved on Coruscant, were taken away from there and brought to new worlds by older races, developed generation and sleeper ships to colonize many star systems, most of them within the Core until the invention of hyperdrive on Corellia 25,600 BBY what started wide-spread mass colonization. On some colonies the population mutated into new species due to adaption to and influence of new environment, resulting in near-Humans. Convergent evolution and intelligent design produced a lot of species unrelated to Humans but looking alike them on many planets.

 

The presence of humanoid traits in most galactic species can be easily explained by the concept of convergent evolution.

 

Don't forget Intelligent Design. Maybe the Force guides the evolution of species for whatever reason.

For a sentient space-faring species a humanoid body is the best form avaible, it allows them to do everything necessary. On Earth for example, dolphins are sentient too, but due to fundamental limitations of their bodies they are unable to set up a modern civilization, don't start about building starships.

So Star Wars is right with depicting many species as humanoid. The Dugs' design may look funny, but it does not make a lot of sense. Dug bodies would easy keel over, also it's impossible to walk very fast with it. The whole "walking with arms" concept is rather silly. Also Hutts, nothing against overweight people, but I don't see a reason why keep all food in form of body fat, it is more than impractical and well, kinda ugly.

Still we have the question why such many species in Star Wars have the same sceleton structur, faces and hands? This cannot be explained entirely by convergent evolution.

On the other side, Star Wars sources have shown only a tiny fraction of all species. The Skyriver galaxy is inhabited by 20 million races, actually only ~4000 can be seen in film, literature and software, most of them represented by a single member.