A series of symposia organized at University of California, Santa Cruz, in the late 1960s, to address topics of interest to scholars interested in the Pacific Islands eventually led to the formation of the Association for Social Anthropology in Eastern Oceania (ASAEO), which subsequently became the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO). ASAO is an international organization dedicated to comparative studies of Pacific topics. ASAO has held annual meetings since 1972, in various locations to accommodate its international membership.

Over time, a distinctive ASAO meeting format evolved, designed to promote scholarly collaboration and cooperative publication by facilitating review and critique of contributions in a focused, topical session that often meets two or three years in a row. The first meeting on a given topic is often an "informal session" to share ideas and identify a common ground of interest and data to justify organizing the next stage. Communication among participants prior to the annual meeting sometimes allows groups to develop ideas to a point that they convene for the first time as a "working session." For a working session, participants prepare contributions that are circulated ahead of time and summarized (not read) during the session. A "symposium" usually develops from sessions that have met at least once before. Symposium participants have rewritten their papers within a comparative framework that has emerged from group discussion and critique, and papers again are circulated before the meeting for further critique and refinement. Many symposia proceed to publication, in the ASAO Monograph Series or in other forums including special issues of journals as well as stand-alone volumes.

The association also has a Special Publication Series. The ASAO Newsletter (archived separately) is a benefit of membership. ASAO members and other interested persons also communicate via ASAONET, an electronic bulletin board (emaillistserve) hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago since 1995. An ASAO website was established in 1996, hosted by the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.

Since ASAO obtained US federal tax-exempt status as a 50l(c)3 nonprofit corporation in 1992, individual donations, including publication royalties, and a portion of membership dues has supported the Association's Pacific Islands Scholars Fund, which provides funds to help defray transportation costs for Pacific Islands scholars to participate in sessions during the annual meetings, An elected board guides the association, and several officers manage operations. Individuals who have served as board members or officers, or have contributed to an ASAO publication, are eligible for ASAO Fellow status on payment ofannual dues. Distinguished scholars in the field may be elected as ASAO Honorary Fellows; the number of living Honorary Fellows at no time exceeds fifteen.