Editing Elf (section)

=== Demythologising elves as indigenous peoples ===

Some nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars attempted to rationalise beliefs in elves as folk memories of lost indigenous peoples. Since belief in supernatural beings is ubiquitous in human cultures, scholars no longer believe such explanations are valid.{{sfnp|Spence|1946|pp=53–64, 115–131}}{{sfnp|Purkiss|2000|pp=5–7}} Research has shown, however, that stories about elves have often been used as a way for people to think [[metaphor]]ically about real-life ethnic others.{{sfnp|Hall|2007|pp=47–53}}<ref name=tangherlini/><ref name="Poor"/>