Jawa/Legends

"I can't abide those Jawas... disgusting creatures!"

- C-3PO

Jawas were short humanoid natives of Tatooine. They were scavengers, often seeking out technology for sale or trade in the deep deserts in their huge sandcrawler transports. A band of Jawas was responsible for locating C-3PO and R2-D2 and selling them to Luke Skywalker's uncle Owen Lars. Another tribe of Jawas, led by Tteel Kkak, found Jabba the Hutt's rancor.

Physical Description
Jawas were about 1 meter tall, and were characterized by their brown robes, yellow eyes, and quickly spoken language called Jawaese that included words such as "Utinni!" They were rodent-like in appearance, and considered "remarkably ugly" by most Humans. Jawa faces were obscured by a cloud of insects that gathered in the recesses of their hoods, attracted by their foul odors. Their particular stench was a combination of poor hygiene and a mysterious solution into which Jawas dip their clothes to retain moisture. To Jawas, the odor was packed with information about each other, such as clan lineage, health, emotional state, even the last meal eaten. Jawas also evolved several important survival traits, such as exceptional night vision, a strong immune system, and an efficient digestive system that drew all the needed nutrients from the Jawa staple diet of hubba gourd.

Society Description

 * "Jawas... Never around when you need them."
 * &mdash; Kyle Katarn

Jawas had long been scavengers, as the Dune Sea provided a bounty of refuse. It was littered with spacecraft wreckage from millennia of star travel. The Jawas built homes and tools from these ancient scraps, and traveled the dunes in sandcrawlers, cast-off mobile smelters from failed outlander mining attempts. Jawas lived in clans, each with distinct territories for living and scavenging. In most Jawa clans, half the clan worked and lived in the sandcrawlers while the other family units dwelled in fortresses deep in the desert where collected wares were stored. These fortresses had high walls made from large chunks of old wrecked spaceships for protection against Sandpeople and krayt dragons.



A clan was led by a chief. Males were most often the leaders, while females were treated like second-class citizens at best, property at worst. The few females afforded respect in Jawa culture were the shamans. A Jawa became a shaman when she was overcome by an illness accompanied by a hallucinatory vision. Depending on the outcome of the vision, and assuming the Jawa survived the illness, she was usually decreed a shaman, and her words were given the respect that such wisdom commanded. Once a year, the scattered Jawa clans gathered for a great swap meet. Here, numerous sandcrawlers converged and the Jawas met to exchange salvage. Marriages were arranged and Jawa children and females were exchanged among clans.

History
The Jawas were descendants of the Kumumgah species which used to live on Tatooine long before the formation of the Old Republic. Later, the Rakata of the Infinite Empire punished the Kumumgah for defying their authority by unleashing an orbital bombardment that reduced the surface of the once lush world into little more than fused glass, which eventually crumbled and became desert sand. This extreme climatic change split the Kumumgah into two races: the tall Ghorfas (who evolved into the Sandpeople) and the short Jawas.

Millennia later in 70 BBY, Corellian Mining brought many digger crawlers to Tatooine, though they abandoned the planet on the same year when the orbital station Tatoo III crashed. It was also discovered that the unstable nature of the local ores from which it had been constructed was behind the crash. Although the planet was thereafter considered technically part of the Republic's Arkanis Sector, it was de facto a part of Hutt Space. The abandoned sandcrawlers radically changed Jawa civilization, serving as mobile fortresses for Jawa tribes searching the deserts for materials to scavenge.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars 3-D
 * Stop That Jawa!
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
 * Star Wars Galaxies
 * Star Wars Battlefront
 * Star Wars Battlefront II
 * Junior Jedi Knights: Promises
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds