English

Noun

heterarchy ‎(countable and uncountable, plural heterarchies)

1. (uncountable) The rule of an alien; rule from without; government by an extraterritorial power.^[1]

   Despite installing puppet governments in the marches, the subjects of the empire’s conquered territories were still very conscious of living under heterarchy.

2. (countable) An example of this government.

   The proposed liberation of our largely undeveloped economy goes too far — the resulting foreign dominance of our markets would make us a heterarchy.

3. A system of organization where the elements of the organization are unranked (non-hierarchical) or where they possess the potential to be ranked a number of different ways.^[2]

Derived terms

• heterarchic

Related terms

• heterarch
• heterarchical

References

1. 1 2 “†ˈheterarchy” defined as a derived term of the prefix “hetero-”, listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]
2. ↑ Crumley, Carole L. (January 1995). "Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies" (PDF). Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 6 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1525/ap3a.1995.6.1.1. Retrieved 26 February 2014.