The Harvard sociologist Michèle Lamont has written extensively about the symbolic boundaries that separate groups of people, and the cultural processes by which these boundaries are drawn, resulting in the lumping and splitting of individuals into larger collectives. These boundaries are erected using myriad familiar social categories such as class, income, religion, race, ethnicity, and nationality. Individuals often self-identify with certain groups, but equally as often, individuals are identified by others as members of a particular group.
