Hierarchies appear almost everywhere. Most [human organization]?s, such as businesses, churches, armies and political movements are structured hierarchically; commonly a superior is called a boss and has more power than his subordinates. In object-oriented programming, classes are organized hierarchically; the relationship between two related classes is called inheritance?. In biology, organisms are commonly described as an assembly of parts (organs) which are themselves assemblies of yet smaller parts, and so on. In physics, the [standard model]? decomposes bodies down to their smallest particle? components.
(The Wikipedia Community is remarkable for not being hierarchically structured, as no contributor possesses inherently higher standing than another (as of yet).) (As of October/November 2001, a non-anarchist stance for the Wikipedia project has been clarified by the Wikipedia administration. See Larry Sanger/Is Wikipedia an experiment in anarchy.)
The concept of hierarchy qualifies as interdisciplinary.
Generalizations: Structure?
Specializations:
Other Potential Examples: