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‪This article proposes to analyze the shifts of symbolic and material borders, based on scientific explorations carried out by researchers in humanities from the University of Reunion Island. Mobilizing the boundary object concept, it historicizes these explorations and questions the circulation of related social discourses. The inquiry is based on a bibliographic recension of the scientific productions, confronted with interviews with researchers from the UR. Finally, it allows to an epistemological reflection on the emergence of the idea of Indianoceania and on some examples of its mediations. The work of scientists, as situated knowledge, and circumscribed to island areas in the southwest of the Indian Ocean, redefine and sometimes upset European-centered theoretical paradigms. Focusing on the cartographic products, we analyse the interactions between the academic sphere and the economical and political spheres.‪