DNS[0] is only a decentralized hierarchy with caching, a class of system which pre-dates the digital era as the de-facto means of political and military organization in any human society larger than a village or town. DNS as a directory system for IP is could itself be viewed as a direct philosophical descendant of military insignia (perhaps via the then-popular branch-tangent of the telephone book, itself ex-telegraph, and postal system) and these could all be in effect traced back to at least Roman society[1], I don't think arguing this is a "western" invention is very convincing or useful. Any ancient army or polity of any size would have had an equivalent, which would then include ancient Egypt, China[2], India, Mesopotamia[3], Mesoamerica, etc. Actually, come to think of it, the comparative study of ancient postal systems would be pretty interesting.[4]

[0] Original DNS RFC1035 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1035 (1987) [1] Somewhat cheekily as the inventor of DNS has a Greek surname. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mockapetris [2] 2000+ years ago and mature enough to have QoS+max-TTL/hop: http://libgen.rs/scimag/10.1163%2F9789004292123 (pp17-48) + where I write this. [3] Evidenced to 9th century BC https://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/governors/thekingsro... [4] Start by fixing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_postal_history