Table 2

Epidemiological transition theory as modernisation theory: shared assumptions

1	Epidemiological transition (and modernisation) is aphased process. Societies begin with the primitive or traditional stage and end with the modern stage.
2	Epidemiological transition (and modernisation) is ahomogenising process that produces tendencies toward convergence among all societies.
3	Epidemiological transition (and modernisation) is anEuropeanisation (or Americanisation) process.
4	Epidemiological transition (and modernisation) is anirreversible process. Once started, it can not be stopped.
5	Epidemiological transition (and modernisation) is a progressive process—in the long run it is desirable.
6	Epidemiological transition (and modernisation) is a lengthy process.

This table is based on Susan Greenhalgh's “Anthropology theorizes reproduction: integrating practice, political economy and feminist perspectives” (in Susan Greenhalgh, editor,Situating fertility: anthropology and demographic inquiry, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995: 6), which is in turn based on Alvin So's Social change and development: modernisation, dependency, and world systems theory(Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, 1990: 33–34). In this table “Epidemiological transition (and modernisation)” substitutes “fertility transition,” the term that appears in Greenhalgh's.