Was Chewbacca inspired by Sasquatch? A few days ago, I was reminiscing with my wife about the first time we saw Star Wars, shortly after it premiered thirty years ago today. I told my wife that even as a kid, Chewie was my favorite character ('natch) because he reminded me of Bigfoot. My wife shrugged and said, "Wasn't he kinda supposed to be Bigfoot?" Today, cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, author of
Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America, explains why Chewbacca and Bigfoot probably aren't even kissing cousins. From Loren's post:
When I visited Honey Island Swamp, in the 1980s, the Star Wars movies had obviously made an impact on the local naming of the Honey Island Swamp Monster. Locals in the area some miles outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, were calling their Honey Island cryptid, casually, for example, by naming their small swamp boats (wrongly spelled) “Wookie.” The Star Wars movies came first, and there is no evidence that the Honey Island Swamp Monster was called a “Wookie” or a “Wookiee” before 1977.
Some people, however, seem to think otherwise. Florida cryptozoologist Scott Marlowe has argued on the cryptozoology.com forum that “the term ‘Wookie’ chosen by Lucas is a North American Indian term for a Bigfoot…It is culturally and linguistically related to the term Shaawanoki which is the Seminole word for the Skunk or Swamp Ape.”
This is a highly doubtful theory...
译文:
Chewbacca是大脚（Bigfoot）吗？
Chewbacca是从北美野人中得到灵感的吗？在星球大战公演后的30年的现在，我和我太太一起回忆我们第一次看时的场景。我告诉我太太当我还是个小孩子时，Chewie是我最喜欢的人物，因为是他使我想起了大脚（Bigfoot）。我的太太耸耸肩说道：“是不是他有点被假想成大脚了？”动物学家劳伦•科尔曼，大脚！猿人在美国的真实故事的作者，解释了为什么Chewbacca和大脚不可能是远亲。看看劳伦的文章：
当我在1980年访问甜蜜岛沼泽时，星球大战的电影已经对当地所命名的甜蜜岛沼泽怪物产生了很大的影响。在新奥尔良以外几英里的地方，路易斯安娜的人们随意地称呼他们的甜蜜岛，例如，称呼他们为小沼泽船（错误的拼音）“Wookie”。星球大战的电影刚开始时，并没有证据证明，在1977年之前，甜蜜岛沼泽怪物被称作为“Wookie”或者是“Wookiee”。
然而，一些人似乎是用其他的方式在思考。佛罗里达动物学家斯科特•麦阿洛在cryptozoology.com论坛上争论，卢卡斯选择的“Wookie”的说法，是北美印地安人对大脚的说法。它是与Shaawanoki说法有关的文化与语言，是对沼泽猿的米诺尔人的措辞。
这是一个非常可疑的理论……