Why did it take so long for sociologists to take translation as an object of study, and for Translation Studies to adopt a sociological eye? The history of disciplines illustrates that not only methods but also whole worldviews are created - or inherited - from other systems of thinking, defining what are legitimate objects of research. Sociology emerged within a certain geopolitical context and in a specific geographical location at a time when nation-state institutions conditioned the relation of the observer to the other. The contours of the definable object, whether domestic of foreign, prevented consideration of the intermediate zone, a region with blurred borders, thereby excluding translation form the list of acceptable object.