The Organization of Medical Anthropology was formed in 1967 by a group of persons interested in social sciences and medicine, which had earlier organized in the “Roster of Anthropologists, Physicians, and Others Who Have Special Interests in Medical Anthropology.” The Organization first met in Berkeley, California, in 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. A month later, on November 22, the Organization held its first medical anthropology workshop at the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting, which took place in Seattle, Washington, 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. (from Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “Medical anthropology in the United States,” in Francine Saillant and Serge Genest (eds.), Medical Anthropology. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006.)