To assess ethnic fertility variations in Zambia, multivariate cluster analysis, multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant analysis are applied to Zambian anthropological and demographic data. First, using 35 anthropological dimensions (as presented in the Murdock Atlas), cluster analysis is applied to twenty Zambian societies to derive four Zambian traditional reproductive regimes. Results suggest that low fertility was associated with societies that had a weak control of reproduction at community level. This suggests that these societies controlled fertility at family level therefore supporting a crucial element of the intergenerational wealth-flows theory (family nucleation). Second, using census and DHS data, fertility trends (1981-2000) for the derived traditional reproductive regimes are computed. Results confirm existence and changing patterns of Zambian ethnic fertility differentials. Lastly, multivariate analysis of variance and descriptive discriminant analysis results show that fertility levels of Zambian traditional reproductive regimes have been converging because of differences in exposure and response to urbanisation between different ethnic societies. This suggests that modernisation and ideational theories provide eminent explanations of fertility declines in some Zambian ethnic societies.