For centuries tribal shamans have danced the spirits, be they ancestral or animal. It is a ritual which brings the self
into a more primal awareness, an animistic view which recognises no distinction between the physical and the spiritual. Stuart Harris-Logan, a descendant of the MacNéill family of Barra, investigates references to the sacred raven dance in the Western Islands of Scotland, shedding new light on the oral tradition, and addressing an area of research which many still hold to be taboo.