Final answer:
Medical anthropology began to develop as an anthropological sub-discipline in the late 1970s with the publication of a textbook. However, cross-cultural health studies were conducted by applied anthropologists and researchers even before that.
Step-by-step explanation:
The discipline of medical anthropology began to develop as a sub-discipline of anthropology in the late 1970s with the publication of George Foster and Barbara Anderson's medical anthropology textbook. However, even before that, applied anthropologists and researchers in fields like social epidemiology and public health had been conducting cross-cultural health studies since the end of World War II. Early figures like Edward Wellin, Benjamin Paul, Erwin Ackerknecht, and John Cassell played a significant role in laying the foundation of medical anthropology. These early practitioners recognized the limitations of a purely biomechanical approach to health and disease and emphasized the importance of cultural and social factors in understanding health and illness.