Words like "dominance" and "superior" and such in this context are more interesting in how they're employed than in any inherent phenomenon they are intended to describe.

Some poor-ass professor -- fighting tooth and nail for tenure, or at least some form of stability from all-powerful admin staff -- can't keep themselves from trying to figure out who's "Dominant" or "Alpha" looking at a bunch of apes or bugs. When in reality the network isn't directed, but a mesh of arbitrary weights, vectors, and dimensionality.

Perhaps if ancient China had beat us to Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution we would be seeing scientists talking about how respectful mammals are of their ancestors.