Social Framework
In earlier American rural life, communities raised barns because many hands were required. In areas that were sparsely settled or on the edge of the frontier, it was not possible to hire carpenters or other tradesmen to build a barn. The harsher winters gave more urgency to the matter of barn construction than was present in the relatively milder climate in much of Europe. Similar conditions have given rise to similar institutions, such as the Finnish one of 'talkoot'.
Barn raisings occurred in a social framework with a good deal of interdependence. Members of rural communities often shared family bonds going back generations. They traded with each other, buying and selling land, labor, seed, cattle, and the like. They worshipped together. They celebrated together, because cities were too far away to visit with any frequency by horse and wagon. Despite traditions of independence, self-sufficiency, and refusal to incur debt to one another, community barn raisings were a part of life.
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