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.