I mean, these fields weren't considered fields before. Sociology is a new field in that the methods it uses (the scientific method) are now being newly applied to social issues. There are several metaphysical and semantic questions to be answered here. Is the scientific method even appropriate for studying society? One prerequisite for the application of the scientific method is the belief that the laws being studied are fixed. Does that apply to every sociological question? If not, then the entire field is called into question.

In times past, sociology would be the realm of philosophers who would, after careful study (not scientific, just regular human intuition) and reading (so they could 'experience' past events), would come up with a framework of human behavior and then defend it.