Eck
Biographic Data
| ID | 5107 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eck |
| FAMILY NAME | Eck |
| SIGNATURE | ECK |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7523-9807 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 192 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The Suppression of Depression as Multimediation: Psychiatric Diagnoses Under Myanmar's Military Dictatorship
Myanmar has experienced decades of military dictatorship, civil wars, religious violence, economic crises, and natural disasters. While these conditions would suggest very high rates of depression and anxiety, government statistics report an exceptionally low depression rate of 0.00006%, compared to the global rate of 3.4%. This study combines analysis of epidemiological data, ethnographic observation of clinics, and in-depth interviews. I argue …
A mesocosmology of the next pandemic
Life is a gift: Value cosmologies in Hollywood cinema
Is life "priceless," or can life be bought and sold like a commodity? Anthropological theory has not yet been able to integrate incommensurable value with commensurable value. But such an integrated theory of value exists-not explicitly in theory but implicitly in everyday ethics and fictional narratives. I analyze how the movie Titanic, one of the most commercially valuable artefacts of all time, reveals a comprehensive ideology of how life and …
Valuing as a social process: Embodiment, relevance, and commensuration
In Inventing Value, Dave Elder-Vass (2022) argues that value is a set of beliefs about items that are strategically propagated to increase profits. The emphasis on value as a social process is particularly welcome, as this is the most fruitful direction for understanding worth. But the book leaves most of the important questions unanswered: who or what creates value, how to distinguish real and fake value, or how value can be best created and red…
Damnations of Memory: Monument Attacks in the United States, 2015-2021
The United States is in the midst of a struggle over how to remember national history. Since the mid-2010s, much of this struggle has focused on historic monuments. No other country has seen as many monument attacks, renamings, and removals as the United States in this period. This article explores whether monument attacks are an acting out of value conflicts. The distinction between "heroic" and "wounded" modes of remembering the past helps to u…
Having the card makes us feel worthless: The negative value of government-funded health insurance in India
Since the 2000s, hundreds of government-funded health insurance (GFHI) schemes were introduced in India. These schemes are meant to prevent poorer households from incurring catastrophic health expenditures. Through GFHIs, policy-makers want to mobilize the decision-making powers of private consumers in a liberalized healthcare market. Patients are called upon to act as 'co-creators' of healthcare value by optimizing supply through demand. Based o…
Where old is gold again: Antidepressants in Nepal, 1961–2021
Native American Dis/possessions: Postcolonial Trauma in Hitchcock’s Vertigo
The Ohlone, the original settlers of the San Francisco region, were violently dispossessed by successive colonial regimes, first Spanish, then US American. The colonial trauma was written out of history, and by the 20th century anthropologists pronounced the Ohlone to be ‘extinct’. In this article, I explore how the dispossession of the Ohlone haunt one of the greatest movies of all time: Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). Although Vertigo is one…
Depression, Deprivation, and Dysbiosis: Polyiatrogenesis in Multiple Chronic Illnesses
Biomedicine tends to treat “mental” illnesses as if they could be isolated from multiple social and somatic problems. Yet mental suffering is inseparable from complex somatosocial relations. Clinical fieldwork in a deprived area of the UK shows that nearly all the people treated for “depression” are chronically multimorbid, both in their bodies and in their social relations. Mental suffering is co-produced by poverty, trauma, and excessive medica…
"Demand Side" Health Insurance in India: The Price of Obfuscation
In India, most healthcare expenses are patients' out-of-pocket payments to private sector providers. Catastrophic health expenditures drive millions of families deeper into poverty. To save poorer households, hundreds of government-funded health insurance schemes have been introduced since the 2000s. These "demand side" schemes suggest that treatments in the private sector will be fully reimbursed. Fieldwork in one of India's largest hospitals sh…
Depression
Depression, which psychiatrists regard as a most common mental illness, has been examined by anthropologists especially closely since the 1980s. While most medical experts consider depression as a universal, neurobiological disease that requires a global public health intervention, anthropologists instead ask why the illness known in psychiatry as ‘depression’ appears to have been extremely rare in much of the world until very recently. They also…
Multimorbidity, Polyiatrogenesis, and Covid‐19
To date, the strongest predictor for dying with COVID‐19 is suffering from several chronic disorders prior to the viral infection. Pre‐existing multimorbidity is highly correlated with socioeconomic inequality. In turn, having several chronic conditions is closely linked to multiple medication intake, especially in richer countries with good access to biomedical care. Owing to its vertical structure, biomedicine often risks giving multiple treatm…
Misters Mukharji and Kathotia: The economies of the city
This article reflects on the meanings of money in the lives of two very different people from Kolkata. Mr Mukharji, a 60 year-old Bengali man, was a branch manager of a state bank who devoted his life to Tantrik Yoga. Mr. Kathotia, a Marwari man, was a wholesale paper dealer, with an interest in stamp and coin collecting. After first developing a theoretical framework on the sociology of money, the authors go on to describe their encounters with …
"A Medical Anthropology of the "Global Psyche
A medical anthropology of the "global psyche" may sound like an odd project. Is there one psyche that pervades the whole globe? In their introduction to this special issue, Dominique Béhague and Kenneth MacLeish dissuade any suggestion of either the global or the psyche as entities that could be examined like substances. Neither the psyche nor the globe are stable points of reference. They are not names of entities. Instead, the global psyche is …
Medical Anthropology Methods: Grounded Theory
“Grounded theory” (GT) is an approach to research that originates in 1960s American sociology and has since been taken up by many other disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. GT tries to show that qualitative research can be as rigorous as quantitative research and that it is better to let concepts emerge from data rather than using data to test hypotheses. Despite many scholars saying that they follow GT procedures, in practice t…
Biocommensurations
It just opens up their world: Autism, Empathy, and the Therapeutic Effects of Equine Interactions
Experiences of autism-spectrum disorder are now increasingly studied by social scientists. Human-animal relations have also become a major focus of social inquiry in recent years. Examining horse-assisted therapy for autistic spectrum disorders, this is the first paper that brings these fields together. Drawing on participant observation and interviews at a UK horse therapy Centre, this article examines how staff and the parents of riders account…
Disentangling Family Life and Hair Pulling: Trichotillomania and Relatedness
Trichotillomania (hair pulling) remains a relatively unknown form of body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB). Sufferers tend to conceal both the action and its effects from others because of stigmatization, which is strong in both public and domestic spheres. Negative responses from close family members can add significantly to the suffering. Based on fieldwork in the United Kingdom and United States, we explore how hair pulling troubles ties eve…
Gas
Commentary: Ethnographic critiques of global mental health
What is strange is that we don't have more children coming to us: A habitography of child psychiatrists and scholastic pressure in Kolkata, India
“We Always Live in Fear”: Antidepressant Prescriptions by Unlicensed Doctors in India
Anthropological Engagements with Modern Psychotropy
Ayurveda made modern: Political histories of indigenous medicine in north India, 1900–1955
No one doubts that Ayurveda, the ‘science of long life', is old: its earliest roots can be traced to the Vedas, and even its ‘Golden Age', when Caraka, Sushruta, and Vaghbata's compendia were compo
Aghor Medicine: Pollution, Death, and Healing in Northern India
Pharmaceutical Citizenship: Antidepressant Marketing and the Promise of Demarginalization in India
Among practitioners of biomedicine, to speak of people as 'marginalized' often amounts to saying that they do not have access to medical substances. Thus conceived, the best way to remove marginality seems to be to give medicines to those deprived of them. The peculiar relationship between marginality and pharmaceuticals is especially poignant in the case of antidepressant drugs, as these drugs appear to bring the patient 'back into society', but…
Global Pharmaceutical Markets and Corporate Citizenship: The Case of Novartis’ Anti-cancer Drug Glivec
The Unlicensed Lives of Antidepressants in India: Generic Drugs, Unqualified Practitioners, and Floating Prescriptions
Antidepressant uses have been rising rapidly over the past decades. Two main theories have been advanced to explain this. One claims that socio-economic change causes a global rise of depressive illness. The other holds that European and North American corporations are aggressively marketing antidepressants to expand their global reach. Both theories assume that multinational capitalism drives rising depression rates. Based on ethnographic data f…
Bodily sovereignty as political sovereignty: Self-care' in Kolkata, India
This paper explores the potentials of applying Michel Foucault's notion of 'self-care' to issues in medical anthropology. While Foucault's writings on regimes of power/knowledge have had an enormous influence on medical anthropologists, his late works on the ethics of the self have not yet received much attention. This paper discusses Foucault's notion of self-care in relation to Ayurvedic interpretations of digestion in Kolkata (formerly Calcutt…
The Ills of Marginality: New Perspectives on Health in South Asia
Social marginality and ill health can form an unholy dyad: firstly, groups who suffer from chronic or infectious diseases often find themselves pushed to the margins. Secondly, people who are already on the edge of society tend to suffer more from illness than those at the centre. In development discourse, marginal people are defined as those who are ‘not yet’ on the same level as the developed mainstream and are in urgent need of aid from the ce…
Three propositions for an evidence-based medical anthropology
Medicine seems to collect evidence in ways entirely different from social anthropology. It aims to gather 'best evidence' through large randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and advanced methods of statistical analysis. The latest phase in this drive towards quantification is the global rise of evidence-based medicine (EBM). From the perspective of EBM, ethnographic evidence, with all its emphasis on 'local' knowledge, is at best anecdotal, at wors…
It just opens up their world: Autism, Empathy, and the Therapeutic Effects of Equine Interactions
Experiences of autism-spectrum disorder are now increasingly studied by social scientists. Human-animal relations have also become a major focus of social inquiry in recent years. Examining horse-assisted therapy for autistic spectrum disorders, this is the first paper that brings these fields together. Drawing on participant observation and interviews at a UK horse therapy Centre, this article examines how staff and the parents of riders account…
Towards an ethnography of Indian homeopathy
Despite its large number of practitioners, medical anthropology has given little attention to Indian homeopathy. In historical accounts, homeopathy's popularity is explained by its position as a modern, yet non-colonial form of medicine, which became indigenized during the last 150 years. Other scholars argue that homeopathic concepts converge with Indian ideas on healing. However, few empirical data have been gathered on homeopathic practice in …
When the Government Changes, the Card Will Also Change: Questioning Identity in Biometric Smartcards for National Health Insurance (RSBY) in India
Since the mid-2000s, government initiatives in India have been gripped by the idea that biometric identification is more efficient than any form of paper-based documentation. In this article, I explore how new health care schemes in India have adopted this technocratic promise. On the basis of ethnographic research in Karnataka, I describe how enrolments for biometric smartcards for RSBY insurance proceeds. These enrolments are meant to turn the …
"Demand Side" Health Insurance in India: The Price of Obfuscation
In India, most healthcare expenses are patients' out-of-pocket payments to private sector providers. Catastrophic health expenditures drive millions of families deeper into poverty. To save poorer households, hundreds of government-funded health insurance schemes have been introduced since the 2000s. These "demand side" schemes suggest that treatments in the private sector will be fully reimbursed. Fieldwork in one of India's largest hospitals sh…
Biocommensurations
What is strange is that we don't have more children coming to us: A habitography of child psychiatrists and scholastic pressure in Kolkata, India
Disentangling Family Life and Hair Pulling: Trichotillomania and Relatedness
Trichotillomania (hair pulling) remains a relatively unknown form of body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB). Sufferers tend to conceal both the action and its effects from others because of stigmatization, which is strong in both public and domestic spheres. Negative responses from close family members can add significantly to the suffering. Based on fieldwork in the United Kingdom and United States, we explore how hair pulling troubles ties eve…
Gas
When the Government Changes, the Card Will Also Change: Questioning Identity in Biometric Smartcards for National Health Insurance (RSBY) in India
Since the mid-2000s, government initiatives in India have been gripped by the idea that biometric identification is more efficient than any form of paper-based documentation. In this article, I explore how new health care schemes in India have adopted this technocratic promise. On the basis of ethnographic research in Karnataka, I describe how enrolments for biometric smartcards for RSBY insurance proceeds. These enrolments are meant to turn the …
Towards an ethnography of Indian homeopathy
Despite its large number of practitioners, medical anthropology has given little attention to Indian homeopathy. In historical accounts, homeopathy's popularity is explained by its position as a modern, yet non-colonial form of medicine, which became indigenized during the last 150 years. Other scholars argue that homeopathic concepts converge with Indian ideas on healing. However, few empirical data have been gathered on homeopathic practice in …
Bodily sovereignty as political sovereignty: Self-care' in Kolkata, India
This paper explores the potentials of applying Michel Foucault's notion of 'self-care' to issues in medical anthropology. While Foucault's writings on regimes of power/knowledge have had an enormous influence on medical anthropologists, his late works on the ethics of the self have not yet received much attention. This paper discusses Foucault's notion of self-care in relation to Ayurvedic interpretations of digestion in Kolkata (formerly Calcutt…
Pharmaceutical Citizenship: Antidepressant Marketing and the Promise of Demarginalization in India
Among practitioners of biomedicine, to speak of people as 'marginalized' often amounts to saying that they do not have access to medical substances. Thus conceived, the best way to remove marginality seems to be to give medicines to those deprived of them. The peculiar relationship between marginality and pharmaceuticals is especially poignant in the case of antidepressant drugs, as these drugs appear to bring the patient 'back into society', but…
The Ills of Marginality: New Perspectives on Health in South Asia
Social marginality and ill health can form an unholy dyad: firstly, groups who suffer from chronic or infectious diseases often find themselves pushed to the margins. Secondly, people who are already on the edge of society tend to suffer more from illness than those at the centre. In development discourse, marginal people are defined as those who are ‘not yet’ on the same level as the developed mainstream and are in urgent need of aid from the ce…
Fruits of worship: Practical religion in Bengal - Ralph W. Nicholas
Global Pharmaceutical Markets and Corporate Citizenship: The Case of Novartis’ Anti-cancer Drug Glivec
Three propositions for an evidence-based medical anthropology
Medicine seems to collect evidence in ways entirely different from social anthropology. It aims to gather 'best evidence' through large randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and advanced methods of statistical analysis. The latest phase in this drive towards quantification is the global rise of evidence-based medicine (EBM). From the perspective of EBM, ethnographic evidence, with all its emphasis on 'local' knowledge, is at best anecdotal, at wors…
The Unlicensed Lives of Antidepressants in India: Generic Drugs, Unqualified Practitioners, and Floating Prescriptions
Antidepressant uses have been rising rapidly over the past decades. Two main theories have been advanced to explain this. One claims that socio-economic change causes a global rise of depressive illness. The other holds that European and North American corporations are aggressively marketing antidepressants to expand their global reach. Both theories assume that multinational capitalism drives rising depression rates. Based on ethnographic data f…
Aghor Medicine: Pollution, Death, and Healing in Northern India
“We Always Live in Fear”: Antidepressant Prescriptions by Unlicensed Doctors in India
Anthropological Engagements with Modern Psychotropy
Ayurveda made modern: Political histories of indigenous medicine in north India, 1900–1955
No one doubts that Ayurveda, the ‘science of long life', is old: its earliest roots can be traced to the Vedas, and even its ‘Golden Age', when Caraka, Sushruta, and Vaghbata's compendia were compo
What is strange is that we don't have more children coming to us: A habitography of child psychiatrists and scholastic pressure in Kolkata, India
Commentary: Ethnographic critiques of global mental health
Gas
Medical Anthropology Methods: Grounded Theory
“Grounded theory” (GT) is an approach to research that originates in 1960s American sociology and has since been taken up by many other disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. GT tries to show that qualitative research can be as rigorous as quantitative research and that it is better to let concepts emerge from data rather than using data to test hypotheses. Despite many scholars saying that they follow GT procedures, in practice t…
Biocommensurations
It just opens up their world: Autism, Empathy, and the Therapeutic Effects of Equine Interactions
Experiences of autism-spectrum disorder are now increasingly studied by social scientists. Human-animal relations have also become a major focus of social inquiry in recent years. Examining horse-assisted therapy for autistic spectrum disorders, this is the first paper that brings these fields together. Drawing on participant observation and interviews at a UK horse therapy Centre, this article examines how staff and the parents of riders account…
Disentangling Family Life and Hair Pulling: Trichotillomania and Relatedness
Trichotillomania (hair pulling) remains a relatively unknown form of body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB). Sufferers tend to conceal both the action and its effects from others because of stigmatization, which is strong in both public and domestic spheres. Negative responses from close family members can add significantly to the suffering. Based on fieldwork in the United Kingdom and United States, we explore how hair pulling troubles ties eve…
Multimorbidity, Polyiatrogenesis, and Covid‐19
To date, the strongest predictor for dying with COVID‐19 is suffering from several chronic disorders prior to the viral infection. Pre‐existing multimorbidity is highly correlated with socioeconomic inequality. In turn, having several chronic conditions is closely linked to multiple medication intake, especially in richer countries with good access to biomedical care. Owing to its vertical structure, biomedicine often risks giving multiple treatm…
Misters Mukharji and Kathotia: The economies of the city
This article reflects on the meanings of money in the lives of two very different people from Kolkata. Mr Mukharji, a 60 year-old Bengali man, was a branch manager of a state bank who devoted his life to Tantrik Yoga. Mr. Kathotia, a Marwari man, was a wholesale paper dealer, with an interest in stamp and coin collecting. After first developing a theoretical framework on the sociology of money, the authors go on to describe their encounters with …
"A Medical Anthropology of the "Global Psyche
A medical anthropology of the "global psyche" may sound like an odd project. Is there one psyche that pervades the whole globe? In their introduction to this special issue, Dominique Béhague and Kenneth MacLeish dissuade any suggestion of either the global or the psyche as entities that could be examined like substances. Neither the psyche nor the globe are stable points of reference. They are not names of entities. Instead, the global psyche is …
Depression, Deprivation, and Dysbiosis: Polyiatrogenesis in Multiple Chronic Illnesses
Biomedicine tends to treat “mental” illnesses as if they could be isolated from multiple social and somatic problems. Yet mental suffering is inseparable from complex somatosocial relations. Clinical fieldwork in a deprived area of the UK shows that nearly all the people treated for “depression” are chronically multimorbid, both in their bodies and in their social relations. Mental suffering is co-produced by poverty, trauma, and excessive medica…
"Demand Side" Health Insurance in India: The Price of Obfuscation
In India, most healthcare expenses are patients' out-of-pocket payments to private sector providers. Catastrophic health expenditures drive millions of families deeper into poverty. To save poorer households, hundreds of government-funded health insurance schemes have been introduced since the 2000s. These "demand side" schemes suggest that treatments in the private sector will be fully reimbursed. Fieldwork in one of India's largest hospitals sh…
Sociology (21 works) · Political science (13 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Anthropology (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Medicine (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Psychiatry (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · History (7 works)