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Although both classificatory systems were based on similar hierarchical schemes, Gladwin’s system involved territorial dimensions, and a temporal element is implicit in the dendritic framework (Willey and Sabloff 1974:111)

Bronson (1977) proposed a model of exchange along the river network of South East Asia's ancient societies which he coined "the Dendritic Model", based on the dendritic pattern formed by a major river source and its tributaries. Also known as the "tree model", essentially Bronson argues that trade begun at the "trunk", or mouth, of a river, with the local chiefdoms comprising the trunk trading with seafaring peoples of the time period. The "branches" of this model are the peoples dwelling higher in the mountains, whom were cultivating and bringing goods to the coastal chiefdom communities on the islands. These "trunks" and "branches" provide a positive feedback loop which allowed for the mutual benefit of the island dwellers and seafarers from a trading perspective. Bronson also argues that while the certain mainland and insular communities in modern day Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia would have been involved, that the island of Java would have most likely been excluded due to its ability to create and maintain a thriving agricultural paradigm which the others had not.

These sparsely populated societies involved in his model left behind very little in the archeological record, and therefore much of the theory is based on other external factors. The involved chiefdoms would have been at an intersection of being incredibly dependent on trade for basic items such as clothing and food because of their lack of an agricultural complex, and their trade-able goods would have been specialized, making their goods attractive to seafaring peoples who could trade them for larger gains on their journeys. This difference between trade oriented coastal societies of maritime regions in comparison to the agriculturally based societies of the drainage basin areas supports this use of theoretical information to support his model, even with sparse archeological record support.

Bronson's proposed diagram to support the Dendritic Model is: