The determinants of local variations in fertility in Bas-Languedoc and Roussillon during the mid-nineteenth century.

Abstract

The article describes local variations in fertility across contiguous communes in Roussillon and Bas-Languedoc in the 1860s. It identifies two distinctive fertility regimes, as measured by the Princeton indices : high in Roussillon, low in Bas-Languedoc. These are compared with variations in geography, economy, religiosity, literacy and provincial culture as manifested in language. Its distinctive language and culture, Catalan, explains Roussillon's high fertility regime. Geographie and economic forces, as well as religious attachment, explain small variations within the respective fertility regimes, but not between them. The article concludes that reproductive behavior is itself a cultural attribute.