Purpose

I had always assumed that everything has, or at least at some time had, a purpose. I just figured that sometimes the purpose that an item once had was harder to find or see as it has been long since lost and disconnected with. Sadly, this has not held up well in my quest of explanations.

The first this I looked up was why left handed people are called "South Paws". This, it turns out, is linked to baseball as the fields they played on were traditionally facing west, so when a left handed pitcher put his pitching hand out, it was pointing south. Thus, they were called south paws, and it spread from there.

From this success, I moved onto another question that has been troubling me. What is the purpose of the Neck Tie? I had it in my head that I was informed that it was once used to wipe your mouth with, and from there became apart of fashion, loosing all purpose. This didn't feel completely right, so I had hoped that there was some great lost purpose for the tie, but this was not to be. As far as I can find, it is and always has been purely an item of fashion. Wikipedia suggests that it was just an item picked up from one culture to another because of fashion and the modern Neck Tie was simply the adaption of the cravat for a modern factory world.

This Yahoo Answers page suggest it has it's origins in Rome, warn by orators to warm their vocal chords.

This is all very disappointing I feel.

The next question I have; what is, or was the purpose of the collar?