Dear colleagues — and other colleagues

I reckon that taken together these excellent reviews exceed the number of words in What kinship is—and is not by a considerable margin. Moreover, considering that the range of these opinions on the proposed notion of kinship as mutuality of being runs from “intuitively graspable” to “fundamentally inscrutable,” the disorder being sown by this small book would seem to qualify it as an exercise in intellectual entropy. At the risk of even greater disarray, here are my comments in no particular order on what seem to me the most serious criticisms raised by the reviewers. Of the generous encomiums I would only say that I am grateful, since I cannot disagree.