Thank you for your very frank inquiry, I am not a very educated person in the English language, so, most of the time when I am presented with a question such as this one, I would some times go to the English Dictionary and see what they have to say about it. This is what they say about the word Hierarchy.
(1) A Ruling body of Clergy organized into Ranks.
(2) A body of persons in authority
(3)Persons or things arranged in a graded Series.

Now all of the above meanings is based on church and state, which are the plans and arranments which were and are instituted by men. What generally takes place in these situations, is that the poeple who are placed in these positions, generally make plans for their sons and daughters and family in general, to be groomed to take over these positions from generaion to generation. It is the same things which takes place in the systems of Kings and Lords and Presidents and it is now widely spread in every area of authority. These people who are in these positions consider themselves to be above the people, and expect the masses of the people to serve and obey them, even when they are doing things which causes the people to suffer. When the people are pressed too much and they decide to make their feelings known by peaceful protest, then they call out their body guards which is the police and the military and shoot down some and lock up others, like what is going on in Burma today, that is their way of life, it is a very arrogant way to live. They get the best of everything in the country, the best of the fish, the best of the fruits and everything. And if any citizen decide to speak out about their greedy and out of order behavior, they would either imprison them or have them killed as an example to others to stay in the place where they are force to be. So, this family remain as Royalty from generation to generation, and some times these situation even cause revolution as well as family swabble, concerning who should be heir to the position or throne if you prefer. These kinds of things have been going on for ages. It is nothing but a class structure some families consider themselves above the masses of the people, who still have to run the pipes, for them to get water, build the road for them to drive on etc.

Well, it seems to me like these kinds of structures also exist among the animals and the bird kingdom, their are some birds like the Hark which eat other small birds, if they are in given area they rule, the pelekin dives down into the Sea and grab a fish from time to time for his dinner, and the big fish eat the smaller fishes in the Sea. Then the lion will kill a Zebra, or any small animal which he can manage, but he will not attack a fully grown Elephant, but if a baby Elephant is around without a grown elephant around to protect him, then the lion will attack and kill.
And look at this, if a loiness, the lion's wife, kills a buffulo for her dinner, the lions come right along and take it away from her, and she cannot eat any of her own catch, until they are finish. But if the lion kills a goat she just cannot go near to get some. The lions also kill the off spring of other lions, they they kill the children of their own race. It is a hard thing to figure out, but Nature allows these things to take place. Look at the Serengetti the great plains of Kenya, their is drought in the land, and many thousands of various animals are thirsty they have to drink, so they travel many miles to get to the only water hole which they know, some of them die of thirst on the way, and yet when others get to the water hole, there are alligators there wiating to pull them down in the water for their dinner, so there is really no solid way to be able to give an opinion as to why these things takes place, only to say that it must be a kind of balance which mother nature wants to take place, as it relates to the cycle of people and creatures, going and coming into the world from time to time, and this may only be an assumption. So, I illustrate all of these various examples, because I am not really qualified to give you definate answer as to why Mother Nature allows these things to take place, so you will just have to use your imagination to see if you can find any answers in all which I have written.
Again I send many oceans of blessings and self determination to African people everywhere
ONE BLACK HEART ONE BLACK LOVE
Baba Ras Marcus