Infertility, polygamy and abuse

According to traditional understanding a woman has two main tasks; to do house chores well as well as chores in the field and give birth to children. If she is not up to the challenge which are expected of her, especially in the segment of fertility, she is sure to be exposed to public judgment and other repercussions. Without a doubt societies attitude towards infertile women is absolutely inhumane and every sterile woman was treated like a second class citizen - persona non grata. During a periods of crisis in our history such women were regarded as unworthy of life since resources are wasted on her which are more needed for the existence of "fertile" members of the society. Luckily such a stance did not last long since the collective conscious awoke slowly transformed under the influence of improved living conditions.

As Antun Hangi wrote in his anthological work about the life and customs if Bosnian people, a woman not giving birth to children is not dear to her husband, though she was once dear to him. He considers her to be a tree without fruit, rose without petals, therefore she needs to be cut down. Groomsman says to the bride:

Gaze upon those yellow oranges,
If the tree didn't bear fruit each year,
My brother would've cut it down.
Gaze upon the yellow lemon,
If the tree didn't bear fruit each year,
My brother would've cut it down.
Gaze upon the flush roses,
If the rose didn't bloom each year,
My brother would've cut it down.

Ali-bey has a wonderful wife, which he loves dearly. A year has almost passed, and she bares no children. This angers and saddens him. One day he goes to the village to visit his estate and commands his brother, wife's groomsman, to cut her down:

By god my brother Muhammad!
I'm going on my Timar,
when the young bride arrives,
bring her into the haz yard,
then cut her down,
when I don't have the heart,
let her not be my bride then!

In order to avoid the murder of a fertile woman the husband would decide to marry another wife, in order to ensure an heir, which is why polygamy was widespread in the past and was exempt from public judgement, especially if the first wife was infertile. Researching documented data on the subject, but also leaning on the statements of informants which were of an older age, average age 70-90 years, it is evident that military and political conditions influenced the behaviour of people and their social consciousness besides the pure desire for offspring. After WWII famine and scarcity came and once again changed the outlook on life of the entire community. But, what is fascinating is the resilience of people and their desire to survive. In such imposed circumstances polygamy had its practical purpose, besides the deficit of sexually mature men, since it fit perfectly in the sustainability of the family. Namely, since there was no industry at that time the entire existence was reliant on agriculture, another woman took care of the children, elderly or diseased members of the family as well as cooking and the first woman had a task to do all chores outside of the home. Such labour and obligation division had a practical purpose, however such relations were often inharmonious and full of conflict from the inside.