The Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, part of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, “St. Cyril and Methodius” University in Skopje is the descendant of the Department of Ethnology, founded in 1946 by professor Branislav Rusikj under the then Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje. The department worked until 1953, when by decision of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Macedonia, it was closed. Only one subject, Ethnology, persisted and was included in the academic program of the Department of Geography. In the period between 1969 and 1980, there were multiple initiatives to re-new the Department of Ethnology, however all were unsuccessful.
In 1984, responsible state organs within the areas of sciences and education, cаme to the decision to re-new the Department of Ethnology as the Institute of Ethnology, under the Institute of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences in Skopje. In that period, until 1990, the Institute of Ethnology employed four retired PhD in the ethnological sciences: Dr. Galaba Palikrusheva, Dr. Milosh Konstantinov, Dr. Dushan Konstantinov, and Dr. Miograd Hadzi-Ristikj, while subject seminars were held by teaching assistant Mirjana Aluloska (now Mirchevska). After 1990, three additional PhDs joined the Institute of Ethnology: Dr. Aneta Svetieva, Dr. Nijazi Limanoski, Dr. Gjorgji zdravev, one PhD in Museological studies, Dr. Krste Bogoeski, as well as two teaching assistants who eventually defended their doctoral dissertations: Ljupcho Nedelkov and Ljupcho S. Risteski. In the last several years, the Institute of Ethnology employed two additional teaching assistants: Davorin Trpeski and Ilina Jakimovska.
On March 31st, 2005, the Board of Education and Sciences of the Faculty of Natural Sciences made changes to the Statute of the faculty with which the Institute of Ethnology within the Institute of Geography was officially opened as a separate Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, the seventh institute within the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Skopje, and began work as such on October 1st 2005. The current study program of the Institute is built on the model of study programs of the European credit-transfer system for the disciplines of ethnology and anthropology.