In every ancient culture, there was an understanding — spoken or unspoken — that to bind someone by the neck was not simply to restrain them. It was to name them. To own them. To say, this one belongs. Long before the modern collar became a fetish object or a lifestyle symbol, it was something else entirely. In the medieval world, iron collars were used to mark slaves, criminals, and prisoners of war. In religious orders, the collar became a sign of service and submission to