Lumpers and Splitters, Individuals and Structures | Jennifer L. Hochschild

Explanations of Racial Politics within the Survey Research Paradigm Lumpers and Splitters: For several centuries taxonomists of the natural world have been divided into lumpers, who seek to merge a larger number of proposed species or genera into a smaller number, and splitters, who seek to move in the opposite direction.  Some of the debate among the three basic approaches on display in Racialized Politics has the flavor of this difference in taste (or in epistemological starting point, to be more formal).