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Click here for Wookieepedia's article on the Canon version of this subject.  This article covers the Legends version of this subject. 
"You refer to us as 'alien,' and the Princess calls us 'nonhuman.' Why are we defined by you and in comparison to you?"
Borsk Fey'lya to Doman Beruss, 7 ABY[src]

Humanocentrism was the tendency to view the galaxy from the perspective of a Human majority.

History

"Well, you can never trust his kind, can you? I prefer dealing with humans, don't you?"
Wilhuff Tarkin to 12-year-old Anakin Skywalker regarding the security force leader's Blood Carver assassin, Ke Daiv—Skywalker's "first personal kill."[src]

While more passive than Human High Culture, Humanocentrism was pervasive and in many cases, subconscious. It was the source for the Human use of the term "alien" to describe nonhuman species and in some cases tended towards nonhuman speciesism. As such, the term is often synonymous with that variety of speciesism.

Proponents of extreme Humanocentrism pointed to the fact that Humans had founded the Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, Alliance to Restore the Republic, and New Republic; many of the galaxy's best known military leaders and heroes were Humans; that the Core Worlds were almost all founded and universally inhabited by Humans; that Coruscant, the Galactic capital, was widely believed to have been the homeworld of mankind.

Although Humanocentrism was technically outlawed by the Rights of Sentience clause of the Galactic Constitution, it still very much existed throughout the life of the Old Republic. Planets such as Taris reserved the best sections of the world for Humans, while forcing non-Humans into ghettos.

Although many of these infractions took place in areas of the Galaxy where the Republic had tenuous control at best (such as the Outer Rim), or no control (such as the Senex sector), many of them existed where the Republic was very much in control—yet still refused to take action (the Avenue of the Core Founders being an example). At the time the Clone Wars broke out, there were still lawsuits pending about pro-Human bias in the Republic government.

While under the influence of Senator Ranulph Tarkin, the Militarist movement in the Galactic Senate became conflated with Humanocentrism, although the ideologies had apparently diverged by the time of the Separatist Crisis.

The idea of Humanocentrism reached its peak in the Human High Culture ideal of the Galactic Empire, and its subsequent genocide and slavery. One year before the Empire's fall, the Human League kept their ideals alive in New Republic space.

Aliens who were the victims of Humanocentrism or more overt anti-Alien speciesism sometimes reacted by developing their own anti-Humanism. A well-known example of this was the Diversity Alliance.

Appearances

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External links

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