German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA)

The German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie) congregates social anthropologists as well as people and institutions interested in anthropological issues. It was founded in the 1920s, with even older predecessors.

The GASCA devotes itself to the promotion of social anthropological research and teaching and to the distribution of social anthropological knowledge. It is a network of scientific exchange. 35 working groups focus on thematic and regional subdivisions of social anthropology.

As its major scientific activities the GASCA organizes a biannual congress and publishes the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie│Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology (ZfE│JSCA). Founded in 1869, the ZfE│JSCA is one of the oldest anthropological journals worldwide. It is co-published with the Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory of Berlin (Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte). The ZfE│JSCA is published in two volumes a year which contain peer reviewed articles in German and English, each of which is accompanied by an English abstract. Online access to the journal is available via JSTOR.

Twice a year the GASCA publishes the Newsletter of the German Anthropological Association (Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie). Besides a thematic focus it contains reports and information from the social anthropological institutes and museums in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The GASCA is a non-profit association. It currently has close to 850 members. The highest governing body of the association is the General Meeting, which convenes biennially. The GASCA is managed by a board of three, and is assisted by an advisory board and an administrator.

The GASCA (DGSKA) is member of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (WCAA) and therefore part of a network of national and international associations that aims to promote worldwide communication and cooperation in social anthropology.

GASCA 2023 Conference

DGV Konferenz 2017

The next conference will take place in Munich from 25 – 28 July 2023 on the topic ” Contested Knowledge: Perspectives in Social and Cultural Anthropology”.

Here you find our conference website. Registration is now open. It ends on 16 July 2023.

Please find an overview of the programme here. Make sure to book well in advance. Here you will find a compilation of inexpensive hotels in the vicinity of the conference.