云南省民族研究所始建于1956年，“文革”时中辍，1979年恢复重建，是新中国最早成立的民族研究机构之一，也是云南省最早成立的省属民族研究机构。现有研究人员29人，有博士7人，硕士11人，研究员、教授12人，副研究员12人，助理研究员6人，实习研究员1人。其中有2人享受云南省有突出贡献专家特殊津贴，2人获云南省有突出贡献优秀社科专家。设有民族学、民族史、语言、经济、宗教、教育、艺术、考古、民族理论9个研究室；有民族学、人类学、中国少数民族经济、教育学原理、考古学与博物馆学5个硕士点；有中韩文化比较研究中心、云南宗教文化研究中心、影视人类学拍摄与研究中心、东南亚研究中心、西部民俗研究中心5个研究中心；中国西南民族研究学会总部办公室也设在我所。民族学是云南省民族研究所与北京大学社会学人类学研究所合作共建的省院省校合作学科，也是云南省重点建设学科。
云南省民族研究所建立以来，围绕党和国家各阶段的中心任务开展工作，如承担了《民族问题五种丛书》、《中国历史大辞典·民族卷》、《世纪之交世界民族问题背景下中国民族问题研究》、《中国少数民族革命史研究》、《滇西北保护与发展行动计划》、《中外民族学、文化人类学研究比较》、《滇川藏结合部区域经济协作与发展问题研究》、《云南民族文化知识丛书》、《云南少数民族文化史丛书》（25种）等一批国家级、省级和中外研究项目。曾编过《民族学报》、《民族研究译丛》、《民族学调查研究》等刊物，公开出版著作400余部，在国内外各种有影响的刊物上发表学术论文4000余篇。一批学术论著获国家级、省部级奖励。与许多国家有关学术团体建立了人员交流和资料交换关系。接待了美国、法国、日本、泰国、马来西亚、澳大利亚、奥地利、越南等国的学者。多次派出学者前往美国、日本、法国、澳大利亚、泰国、台湾等国家和地区进行学术交流与合作研究。
50年来，云南省民族研究所科研成果卓著，为党和政府制定民族政策，为政府做好民族工作，提供了民族情况咨询和理论上的支持及有益参考，为中国民族学科建设与民族理论的构建作出了极大贡献。今后，云南省民族研究所将继续围绕党和国家的中心工作，以马克思主义民族理论为指导，努力工作，不断进取，为我国的民族研究和民族学学科的建设，为解决云南民族问题，促进各民族的共同繁荣发展，为云南民族文化大省的建设，为云南民族文化走向世界发挥重要的作用，将云南省民族研究所建成国内一流国际知名的民族理论与政策研究的咨询基地。
An Overview of Yunnan Provincial Institute for Ethnic Studies
Founded in 1956, revoked during the “Cultural Revolution” and resumed in 1979, Yunnan Provincial Institute for Ethnic Studies is one of the long-standing ethnic research institutes in China, as well as the earliest provincial ethnic research institute ever founded in Yunnan Province. So far, it has 29 research fellows of whom 7 and 11 hold doctor’s degrees and master’s degrees respectively. It has 12 research fellows and professors and 12 associate research fellows. The number of assistant research fellow and research fellow for internship is 4 and 1 respectively. Two experts are entitled to the province-level special subsidies for their prominent contributions and two are designated as the distinguished social sciences experts of out-standing contributions in Yunnan province. The institute opens 9 research offices, including Ethnology, Ethnic History, Languages, Economy, Religion, Education, Art and Ethnic Theory. Up to now, it offers five specialties for Master candidates, namely, Ethnology, Anthropology, Chinese Ethnic Minority Economy, Principles of Pedagogy, Archaeology and Museology. Five research centers, including Center of Sino-Korean Cultural Comparative Studies, Center of Yunnan Religion Studies, Center for Making and Research of Visual Anthropology, South-east Asian Studies Center, West Region Folklore Studies Center are also set up at the institute. The chief office of the Association for South-west China Ethnic Studies is based at Yunnan Provincial Institute for Ethnic Studies. Ethnology, one of the key disciplines in Yunnan Province, is the inter-collegiate cooperative discipline of Yunnan Provincial Institute for Ethnic Studies and Sociology and Anthropology Institute of Peking University.
Since the founding of the institute, it has undertaken such national, provincial and foreign-funded research programs as Problems of Nationality Five Series, Volume of Nationalities of Chinese History Dictionary, Research on the Ethnic Issues of China under the Context of World Ethnic Issues at the Turn of the Century，Research on the Revolutionary History of Chinese Ethnic Minorities, Protection and Development Initiatives in North-west Yunnan, A Comparison Between Foreign and Chinese Ethnological and Anthropological Research, Research on the Regional Economic Cooperation and Development in the Border Areas of Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet, Cultural History Series of the Ethnic Groups in Yunnan (25 books). Such journals as Journal of Nationality Researches，Translations of Ethnological Researches，Ethnological Survey and Research were ever compiled by the institute. More than 300 books have been openly published, and over 4, 000 academic theses have been published in various influential Chinese and foreign journals. Some of the books and theses have won prizes at national and provincial levels. The institute has established personnel and material exchange relationship with academic organizations of many foreign countries. It has received scholars and experts from the US, France, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Austria, Vietnam, and so on. Scholars have also been sent out to such countries and region as the US, Japan, France, Australia, Thailand, Taiwan for academic exchange and cooperation.
Over the past 50 years, Yunnan Provincial Institute for Ethnic Studies has gained remarkable achievements in scientific researches, providing beneficial theoretical references for the formulation of governmental policies toward nationalities. It has made considerable contributions to the construction and development of Chinese ethnology and ethnic theories. In the coming days, with the guidance of Marxist ethnic theories and in accordance with the current national priority, Yunnan Provincial Institute for Ethnic Studies will endeavor to resolve the ethnic issues in Yunnan, promote the common prosperity and development of the nationalities and contribute to the construction of the key ethnic cultural province, in an attempt to make the institute the world-famous and first –rate internal consulting base.