Metabolism exists on Earth today only in a context formed by multiple higher-level structures, which are themselves constructed by living processes. In this chapter we consider four kinds of higher-level living order: ribosomal translation, some broad classes of oligomer catalysts, the tripartite bioenergetic system of redox couples, protons, and phosphate esters, and cellular compartmentalization including the association of cells with genomes. Like metabolism considered in Chapter 4, these higher levels show modular architecture and suggest a history of independent subsystems that were brought together to form extant cells. Many of the module boundaries follow divisions already seen in metabolism. Biosynthetic pathway patterns and a layered structure in the genetic code may reflect layers in the accretion of components of the translation system. The unification of bioenergetics by cells mirrors hierarchy in biochemistry, with a core of redox and thioester activation, and large-scale incorporation of phosphates only later, perhaps enabling the rise of an oligomer world. The cell is not merely one kind of compartment but at least three. The three core functions of cellularization – unification of bioenergetics, catalytic rate enhancement, and homeostatic regulation of the cytosol – may have come at different stages of separation from mineral-hosted environments. The resulting picture of life is of a confederacy of subsystems, which retain some distinct identity even in their current union. During biogenesis these gained autonomy from the environments that drove them into existence by becoming more dependent on each other.