The Czech Ethnological Society is an association of professionals working in the fields of ethnology and cultural anthropology. The history of the Czech Ethnological Society is closely related to the establishment of ethnology as an academic field in the Czech lands. The idea of establishing this type of association was conceived in 1891. It was founded in 1893 as the Czechoslavic Ethnographical Society in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. The society’s original purpose was to organize a large exhibition in Prague which primarily covered traditional culture and vernacular architecture (a whole village was built) of the Czech lands, Slovakia and other Slavic countries, and to publish an encyclopaedia. In 1904, following the opening of the Ethnographical Museum, where the collections gathered for the large Czechoslavic Ethnographical Exhibition held in 1895 were deposited, the society was renamed the Czechoslavic Ethnographical Museum Society. In 1922, the collections were transferred to the National Museum and the Agricultural Museum in Prague. The transfer of these collections enabled the members of the society to develop their research and publication activities.
In the interwar period, the society concentrated on gathering materials in order to publish an ethnographical encyclopaedia and an ethnographical atlas. Society members published regional monographs as well as methodological literature, organized courses for local amateur historians and ethnographers and carried out surveys.
In the late 1950s, the development of the society was hindered by the establishment of the Society of Czechoslovak Ethnographers by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences which took over most of the research activities. In 1963, due to the then political climate, the Ethnographical Society was united with the Society of Czechoslovak Ethnographers and its original name and structure ceased to exist. During the period of so called normalization, some society members were expelled and persecuted. The rest of them continued to publish the results of their research; they held conferences and seminars and established several specialized commissions. Also regular communication with correspondents flourished.
In 1989, along with the Velvet Revolution which ended the communist era in Czechoslovakia, a new stage in the development of the society started. The society returned back to its original principles of membership and it opened up to professionals as well as non-professionals interested in ethnology. In 1990, an overall report covering the period from 1948 (establishment of socialism) and 1990 (return to democracy) was elaborated. After the year 2000, the society was registered at the Ministry of the Interior as a charity with a new constitution, and it was integrated in the Council of Scientific Societies of the Czech Republic. A new name, the Czech Ethnological Society, was adopted.