Аннотация:The article discusses the appropriateness and correctness of use of the “ecological niche” concept in
biological anthropology and historical human ecology. There is a lack of a unified approach to the interpreta398
tion of this term in general ecology, as well as the internal inconsistency of the Hutchinsonian niche (niche as a
“n-dimensional hypervolume”) concept. It is shown that in studies on biological anthropology and human
ecology, the ecological niche is most often considered as a synonym for habitat. The applying of this concept to
the Homo sapiens is problematic. The use of an “ecological niche” concept at the population level makes us to
consider the ecological niche as the term “... to denote the specialization of a population within community”.
Given the lack of a clearly developed and generally accepted concept of an ecological niche in general ecology,
the use of this term in biological anthropology and historical human ecology can only be recommended
as a metaphor. When focusing on functional aspects of the interaction of human groups with the environment,
it is more productive and correct to apply the concepts of anthropogeocenoses and “subsistence systems”. The
narrow interpretation of the “ecological niche” used in biological anthropology, human ecology and archaeology
does not correspond to the semantic content of this term in studies on theoretical ecology.