Human

**Humans**, taxonomically referred to as ***Homo sapiens***, were the galaxy's most numerous and politically dominant sentient species with millions of major and minor colonies galaxywide. Believed to have originated on the galactic capital of Coruscant, they could be found anywhere, engaged in many different pursuits: spacers, mercenaries, smugglers, merchants, soldiers, assassins, farmers, crime lords, laborers, slaves, slavers, and many others, including Jedi and Sith. Since Humans were the most common sentient species, they were often considered to be a standard or average to which the biology, psychology, and culture of other species were compared.

## Biology and appearance

### Physiology

The Humans were a sentient species that belonged to the simians, a subgroup of the primate order of mammals. As such, they were similar to a number of other species variously designated as apes, including the sentient Ma'alkerrite ape-man, the non-sentient Ferijian apes and a number of mammalian humanoids with a similar physiology. They were taxonomically referred to as *Homo sapiens*.

Humans were bipedal beings with a bilateral symmetry, having a front and a back end, as well as an upside and downside. Their body comprised a head, neck, torso, and four limbs. The upper limbs, called arms, ended in hands which had five fingers each; the lower ones, called legs, ended in feet with also five digits. The Human fingers had multiple points of articulation, and one of them was an opposable thumb that allowed for fine manipulation. Finally, they had one head perched atop a torso. Other sentient species that had a body type roughly similar to Humans and walked upright were often referred to as humanoids, since Humans were the most common example. Unlike other mammalian species such as Wookiees or Ewoks, they had only a light covering of body hair. Most of it was concentrated on the head and, in the case of adult males, face.

Humans were endotherms, or "warm-blooded" animals, meaning they maintained a constant body temperature independent of the environment using the energy from their food. While some mistakenly described themselves as carnivores, Humans were in fact omnivores, subsisting on both animal tissue and plant-based foods. For that reason, their gastrointestinal system was much longer than that of true carnivores such as the Devaronians. Many Humans were partial to food products that were unhealthy for them because of their high fat or sugar content.

The Human genome was considered to be remarkably elastic. In reaction to environmental changes, selection pressures only needed few millennia to engage new genes and reshape the Human bodies. A consequence of that exceptional adaptability was the existence of many Near-Human species—that is offshoots of the baseline Humans who had followed their own evolution. Such offshoots included the shapechanging Stennes Shifters, the scaly-skinned Zisians, the blue-skinned Chiss and the gaunt Pau'ans.

As was common to many humanoid species, Humans had two sexes: male and female, with the latter being distinguished by their pronounced breasts, overall smaller stature and lesser quantity of body hair. Members of the Human race could interbreed naturally with many other species, including the Echani, the Ferroan, Hamadryas, the Kiffar, the Miraluka, the Nagai, and the Theelin. Most of the aforementioned species were in fact Near-Humans. In some cases, Humans could only produce offsprings with members of other species with the help of genetic manipulation or alchemy. Examples of those include the Red Sith, the Qiraash or the Umbarans.

### Physical diversity

Despite overall physiological uniformity, baseline Humans varied greatly in appearance, and no two Humans looked exactly alike. One of the diversity factors was height. Humans averaged 1.80 meters in height, although males were usually taller and heavier than females. Some individuals affected by giantism could grow up to 2.30 meters. On the contrary, those afflicted with nanism could be as small-sized as 1.3 meters.

Their hair was grown, cut, and styled for aesthetic or ritualistic reasons—as with the elaborate hairstyles of the Royal Naboo and the traditional braids of Human Jedi Padawans. The facial hair grown by adult males could be grown, styled, or shaved completely. Their hair color ranged from blond to black, sometimes with hues of red or brown, changing to gray or white as years passed. It could be straight, wavy, or curly. In addition to those varied hair colors, their eyes came in shades of blue, green, gray, or brown. Gradiation of skin tone was also seen among baseline Humans, usually limited to various shades of brown, ranging from dark brown, through lighter shades, to pale skin.. Diversity in appearance was seen on many Human populations, and no particular features seemed to have been traceable to specific isolated communities on any locations. The planet Socorro could have conceivably been an exception, as most of its known Human inhabitants seemed to possess dark skin and hair.[*source?*]

There existed a classification of Human beings in use at the Fusai library branch of the Celebratus Archive, which cataloged Humans by degrees. In that system, Luke Skywalker and Gyla Petro were referred to as "10th Degree" Humans.

### Life cycle

Humans were sexually-reproduced animals, requiring the mating of an opposite sex couple to produce offsprings. While developing in their mother's womb, the child gave her a distinctive "baby bump" accompanied by a significant weight gain. Being mammals, the Human females gave birth to live young, either one or several at a time. Two children born at the same birth were referred to as twins, and three as triplets. The delivery itself normally took place after nine months of pregnancy. It was a painful process that could take as much as ten hours. In some circumstances, women could die during childbirth, although it rarely happened on worlds that had top-flight medical technologies. During their first months of existence, Human babies were usually fed with milk from their mother's breasts.

The period during which a young Human developed from a child into an adult was known as adolescence. According to the Equani therapist Klo Merit, that stage of development was hard to endure without support. Regardless of physiological and psychological changes, the legal transition from childhood to adulthood depended on culture. While some societies treated their members as adults as early as the age of 13, others considered that full adulthood was only attained at 21.

Typically, Humans had an average lifespan of 100 to 120 standard years. Those who were keenly atuned to the Force, an ubiquitous and binding power that suffused the whole Known Universe, could live up to 200. On worlds that possessed advanced technology, such as Bakura, individuals over the age of 160 who were still hale and hearty were not unheard of. By 5 ABY, the Human couple Eppie and Orn Belden were respectively 132 and 164, although the latter wore a voice amplifier on his chest and had gone through three hearts in his life. Thanks to countless medical treatments and organ transplants accessible to a financial elite, it was possible to extend Human lifetime to the age of 300, and at least one Forceful individual was known to have reached the age of 800. In spite of his age, that individual, the Jedi Master Shayoto, was still able to hike all the way up Mount Meru with a cane. At any rate, individuals past the age of 80 were considered old, and most Humans still died in their early hundreds unless they were wealthy enough to afford rejuvenation procedures of the sort available at Aurora Medical Facility on Obroa-skai. However, many older Humans were still healthy enough to pursue very active careers, as exemplified by Gilad Pellaeon, who still served as the supreme commander of the Galactic Alliance Defense Force in 40 ABY, at age 91. Natural signs of ageing in Humans included the whitening or fall of the hair, the loss of teeth, appearance of deep lines, wrinkles and dark blemishes on the skin. Old Humans would experience a decline in many cognitive processes, frequently losing track of time, misidentifying people or places, and, in extreme cases, momentarily forgetting about their own identity or state.

## Society and culture

Humans were noted for being naturally learning and extremely adaptable—not only in terms of physiology, but also mentality and society. Their societies were capable of transforming very quickly in response to a wide array of conditions, which explains why two Human populations could have next to nothing in common culturally speaking. As noted by the Kaminoan scientist Hali Ke, some Human peoples had more in common with neighbors of other species than with their own kind.