An artifact is anything made by humans in the broadest sense. As such, artifacts are a focus of study in sociocultural anthropology both in regard to their production and their wider use and interpretation. The forms of artifacts indicate their potential utilitarian or symbolic functions, yet both form and function may be altered. The things people make become artifacts when people study them as such. In becoming an artifact, the object comes to stand for a subject larger than itself. While artifacts can be studied as discrete entities, they are understood most effectively in their sociocultural contexts, for artifacts are entwined in the complex social relationships that are the focus of anthropological analysis.