Eriko AokiEriko Aoki is Professor of Anthropology at Ryukoku University, Japan. She was granted a D.Phil. by the Australian National University in 1996. She has conducted anthropological research on poetic language, gift exchanges, and rituals in Central Flore, Indonesia, since 1979, and on children of ethnic minorities, coal-mining societies, Indonesian nursing labour immigrants, and art brut in Japan since the late 1990s. Her theoretical interests are semiotics, fetishism, modernity, and enchantment. Her publications include "'Center' and 'Periphery' in Oral Historiography of a Peripheral Area in Southeast Indonesia" in 'Globalization in Southeast Asia' (Berghahn Books 2003) and "Entangled Democracy, Decentralization and Lifeworld in Flores under Global Trends" in 'Foundations for Local Governance: Decentralization in Comparative Perspective' (Springer 2008). She also published a single-authored book in Japanese. Read More Read Less