Rhein, Catherine <br/><br/>
Human Ecology: A Chimeral Field 

 -  2003.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> Human ecology, as a field in social sciences, gets contents and boundaries varying across countries. In the 1920s, the American brand of human ecology was forged through a transfer of concepts, processes and models borrowed from biological ecology. In so doing, R. E. Park naturalized this part of sociology shared, in France, by human geography, demography and social morphology. Such a naturalization process was functional in a context characterized by high social, political and racial tensions and issues. A comparative analysis between this ecology and other human ecologies and geography helps understanding the very structures, functions and epistemological stalemates of human ecology.