The term Paramount Ruler, or sometimes Paramount Datu, is a term used by historians to describe the highest ranking political authorities in the largest lowland polities or inter-polity alliance groups in early Philippine history, most notably those in Maynila, Tondo, Pangasinan, Cebu, Bohol, Butuan, Cotabato, and Sulu. Titles of paramount rulers in different Filipino people groups Different cultures of the Philippine archipelago used different titles to refer to the most senior datu, or leader, of the Bayan or Barangay state. In Muslim polities such as Sulu and Cotabato, the Paramount ruler was called a Sultan. In Tagalog communities, the equivalent title was Lakan. In communities which historically had strong political or trade connections with Indianized polities in Indonesia and Malaysia, the Paramount Ruler was called a Rajah. Among the Subanon people of the Zamboanga Peninsula, a settlement's Datus answer to a Thimuay, and some Thimuays are sometimes additionally referred to as Thimuay Labi, or as Sulotan in more Islamized Subanon communities. In some other portions of the Visayas and Mindanao, there was no separate name for the most senior ruler, so the Paramount ruler was simply called a Datu, although one Datu was identifiable as the most senior. Selection and mechanisms of influence Although Junker notes that a position as paramount leader could be passed on through heredity, the inheritor would still have to prove himself worthy of the position, through a combination of personal charisma, capable leadership, and prowess in war. In this way, Jocano notes that this Paramount Datu was chosen by the Datus from among themselves, a situation Jocano likened to "’a living democracy".’ Junker describes these alliances of rulers as "alliance groups", which she describes as having "a relatively decentralized and highly segmentary structure" similar to other polities in Maritime Southeast Asia. Junker notes:"In the Philippines, the primary unit of collective political action appears to have been an organizationally more fluid "alliance group," comprising individuals whose recruitment into the group involved a variety of both kinship-based and non-kinship based relations (including principles of cognatic descent, as well as forms of ritual friendship). These alliance units, made up of perpetually shifting leader-focused factions, represented the extension of […] power over individuals and groups through various alliance-building strategies, but not over geographically distinct districts or territories." Junker then proceeds to identify a number of mechanisms through which horizontal alliances between local chiefs were established and maintained through a