This list of scholars of ethnology contains people who contributed in some form to the discipline of ethnology, the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationship between them.
| Name | Birth | Death | Nationality | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joan Amades | July 23, 1890 | January 17, 1959 | Spain | |
| Léon Ashkenazi | June 21, 1922 | October 21, 1996 | Israel | |
| Amadou Hampâté Bâ | 1901 | May 15, 1991 | Mali | |
| Johann Jakob Bachofen | December 22, 1815 | November 25, 1887 | Germany | |
| Georges Balandier | December 21, 1920 | October 5, 2016 | France | |
| Heinrich Barth | February 16, 1821 | November 25, 1865 | Germany | |
| Adolf Bastian | June 26, 1826 | February 2, 1905 | Germany | |
| Roger Bastide | April 1, 1898 | April 10, 1974 | France | |
| Gregory Bateson | May 9, 1904 | July 4, 1980 | United Kingdom | |
| Ruth Benedict | June 5, 1887 | September 17, 1948 | United States | |
| Zuzana Beňušková | October 27, 1960 | Slovakia | ||
| Gösta Berg | July 31, 1903 | March 12, 1993 | Sweden | |
| Franz Boas | July 9, 1858 | December 21, 1942 | Germany/United States | |
| Napoleon Chagnon | August 27, 1938 | September 21, 2019 | United States | |
| Charlotte Gower Chapman | 1902 | 1982 | United States | |
| Pierre Clastres | May 17, 1934 | July 29, 1977 | France | |
| Heinrich Cunow | April 11, 1862 | August 20, 1936 | Germany | |
| Wade Davis | December 14, 1953 | Canada | ||
| Samuel de Champlain | August 13, 1574 | December 25, 1635 | France | |
| Jared Diamond | September 10, 1937 | United States | ||
| Germaine Dieterlen | May 15, 1903 | November 13, 1999 | France | |
| Mary Douglas | March 25, 1921 | May 16, 2007 | United Kingdom | |
| Cora Du Bois | October 26, 1903 | April 7, 1991 | United States | |
| Louis Dumont | 1911 | November 19, 1998 | France | |
| Mircea Eliade | March 9, 1907 | April 22, 1986 | Romania | |
| Moisés Espírito Santo Bagagem | 1934 | Portugal | ||
| Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard | September 21, 1902 | September 11, 1973 | United Kingdom | |
| Safi Faye | November 22, 1943 | February 22, 2023 | Senegal | |
| Raymond Firth | March 25, 1901 | February 22, 2002 | United Kingdom | |
| Robert J. Flaherty | February 16, 1884 | July 23, 1951 | United States | |
| Johann Georg Adam Forster | November 27, 1754 | January 10, 1794 | Germany | |
| Meyer Fortes | April 25, 1906 | January 27, 1983 | South Africa | |
| Reo Fortune | March 27, 1903 | November 25, 1979 | New Zealand | |
| James George Frazer | January 1, 1854 | May 7, 1941 | Scotland/United Kingdom | |
| Leo Frobenius | June 29, 1873 | August 9, 1938 | Germany | |
| Arnold van Gennep | April 23, 1873 | May 7, 1957 | France | |
| Clifford Geertz | August 23, 1926 | October 30, 2006 | United States | |
| Hallgerður Gísladóttir | September 28, 1952 | February 1, 2007 | Iceland | |
| Max Gluckman | January 26, 1911 | April 13, 1975 | South Africa/United Kingdom | |
| Fritz Graebner | March 4, 1877 | July 13, 1934 | Germany | |
| Henry Gravrand | 1921 | July 11, 2003 | France | |
| Marcel Griaule | May 16, 1898 | February 23, 1956 | France | |
| Brothers Grimm | January 4, 1785 (Jacob) | September 20, 1863 | Germany | |
| February 24, 1786 (Wilhelm) | December 16, 1859 | |||
| Hans F. K. Günther | February 16, 1891 | September 25, 1968 | Germany | |
| Thomas Højrup | 1953 | Denmark | ||
| Horatio Hale | May 3, 1817 | December 28, 1896 | United States/Canada | |
| Melville J. Herskovits | September 10, 1895 | February 25, 1963 | United States | |
| Te Rangi Hīroa | October 1877 | December 1, 1951 | New Zealand | |
| Robert Jaulin | March 7, 1928 | November 21, 1996 | France | |
| Adolf Ellegard Jensen | January 1, 1899 | May 20, 1965 | Germany | |
| Ulrike Krasberg | August 12, 1950 | East Germany/Germany | ||
| Gerd Koch | July 11, 1922 | April 19, 2005 | Germany | |
| Alfred L. Kroeber | June 11, 1876 | October 5, 1960 | United States | |
| Yanagita Kunio | July 31, 1875 | August 8, 1962 | Japan | |
| Claude Lévi-Strauss | November 28, 1908 | October 30, 2009 | France | |
| Orvar Löfgren | 1943 | Sweden | ||
| Robert H. Lowie | June 12, 1883 | September 21, 1957 | United States | |
| Bronisław Malinowski | April 7, 1884 | May 16, 1942 | United Kingdom | |
| Marcel Mauss | May 10, 1872 | February 10, 1950 | France | |
| David Maybury-Lewis | May 5, 1929 | December 2, 2007 | Pakistan | |
| Margaret Mead | December 16, 1901 | November 15, 1978 | United States | |
| Alfred Metraux | November 5, 1902 | April 11, 1963 | Switzerland | |
| James Mooney | February 10, 1861 | December 22, 1921 | United States | |
| August 13, 1948 | United States | |||
| August 15, 1634 | 1682 | France | ||
| Josiah Nott | March 31, 1804 | March 31, 1873 | United States | |
| Anna-Maja Nylén | March 24, 1912 | February 27, 1976 | Sweden | |
| Dositej Obradović | February 17, 1739 | April 7, 1811 | Serbia | |
| Karl Polanyi | October 25, 1886 | April 23, 1964 | Austria-Hungary | |
| Antun Radić | June 11, 1868 | February 10, 1919 | Croatia | |
| Alfred Radcliffe-Brown | January 17, 1881 | October 24, 1955 | United Kingdom | |
| Alfred Radcliffe-Brown | January 17, 1881 | October 24, 1955 | United Kingdom | |
| Mirko Ramovš | October 5, 1935 | May 19, 2023 | Slovenia | |
| Paul Rivet | May 7, 1876 | March 25, 1958 | France | |
| Jean Rouch | May 31, 1917 | February 18, 2004 | France | |
| Marshall Sahlins | December 27, 1930 | United States | ||
| Carl Wilhelm von Sydow | December 21, 1878 | March 4, 1952 | Sweden | |
| Wilhelm Schmidt | February 16, 1868 | February 10, 1954 | Austria | |
| Carl-Herman Tillhagen | December 17, 1906 | May 28, 2002 | Sweden | |
| Colin M. Turnbull | November 23, 1924 | July 28, 1994 | United Kingdom/United States | |
| Edward Burnett Tylor | October 2, 1832 | January 2, 1917 | United Kingdom | |
| Jean-Christophe Victor | May 30, 1947 | December 28, 2016 | France | |
| Victor Turner | May 28, 1920 | December 18, 1983 | United Kingdom | |
| Huang Xianfan | November 13, 1899 | January 18, 1982 | China |