society for medical anthropology society for medical anthropology the organization of medical anthropology was formed in 1967 and first met on april 27, 1968, at the 27th annual meeting of the society for applied anthropology (sfaa), during which the medical anthropology newsletter was conceived and first published in october 1968 with 53 subscribers. on november 22, 1968, the organization held its first medical anthropology workshop at the american anthropological association (aaa) annual meeting and became the group for medical anthropology (gma). thereafter, medical anthropology meetings have met regularly both at the sfaa and aaa meetings. at the aaa annual meeting in san diego, california, in november 1970, the gma became the society for medical anthropology (sma) and adopted its constitution, of which its first objective was “to promote study of anthropological aspects of health, illness, health care, and related topics.” in 1971, the sma became a section of the aaa. part of a series onmedical and psychologicalanthropology basic concepts health culture-bound syndrome double bind case studies navajo medicine related articles nutritional anthropology psychological anthropology cognitive anthropology transpersonal anthropology ethnomedicine clinical ethnography critical medical anthropology cross-cultural psychiatry person-centered ethnography society for medical anthropology national character studies syndemic major theorists gregory bateson maurice bloch charles l. briggs veena das george devereux cora du bois paul farmer michael m. j. fischer arthur kleinman charles laughlin e. thomas lawson robert i. levy ralph linton tanya luhrmann marvin opler michelle rosaldo nancy scheper-hughes richard shweder merrill singer dan sperber melford spiro beatrice whiting john whiting journals culture, medicine and psychiatry ethos medical anthropology quarterly transcultural psychiatry journal of cognition and culture anthropology of consciousness social and cultural anthropology the sma offers several awards including the rudolf virchow award.