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Testing Hypotheses Of The Demographic Transition In San Borja, Bolivia, Kristin Snopkowski

Anthropology ETDs

Understanding the demographic transition, a trend in which fertility drops after a period of population growth, has been an important area of anthropological and demographic research. This dissertation seeks to understand fertility change by testing five models that have been presented in the literature. The predictions that are unique to each hypothesis are tested in San Borja, Bolivia, a community currently undergoing a fertility transition. Low modern fertility seems counter-intuitive given the increase of individual wealth, but there have not been sufficient tests to lead to an understanding of why this occurs. Informational hypotheses explain fertility transition as a change …