would transform traditional patterns of behaviour and thought. However,
classic transition theory was undermined by the European Fertility Project
carried out at Princeton University, which did not find any consistent
relationship between the timing of the onset of fertility decline and the
different measures of social and economic development associated with
transition (Knodel and van de Walle, 1979). Instead, what did appear
significant were a series of variables which were classified under the rubric
of ìcultureî in the study: language, ethnicity, religion, geographical region.
ìThus were sownî as Greenhalgh puts it, ìthe seeds of the cultural or
diffusion interpretation of fertility decline, arguably the trendiest approach
in fertility research todayî