Clawhammer is right for you. Learning clawhammer first gives you a sense of melody and the beat which in bluegrass is more hidden on the banjo until you get your technique in good order.
You can play clawhammer by yourself your entire life....with Scruggs style, there is almost no chance of becoming competent unless you at some point play in a band...

Following up on "play in a band" -- I think you'd find that solo banjo performances and performances with one other instrument are overwhelmingly clawhammer and not Scruggs-style three finger picking.

won't know til you try

For what purpose will you play? As noted above, Scruggs-style is almost always playedd with others in a band. If you’re a good singer, that might be the way you’ll want to go. For playing by yourself, or with a fiddler, clawhammr is likely best. Certain preferable if you want to go the folksinger route. Jump in and you’ll find your way.

Clawhammer will have you playing music sooner.
Bluegrass has a lot of tutorials because bluegrass needs a lot of tutorials.

Go with whichever you feel motivated to learn, regardless of what you imagine you will do with it in the future (which has a funny way of changing). If you like how clawhammer sounds, that's reason enough to choose clawhammer. But it's not a hard commitment or anything...You can always learn picking (bluegrass style or otherwise) down the line once your clawhammer chops are well established.

Whist I agree with the other comments about clawhammer being more suitable than bluegrass, I suggest that you also investigate the fingerstyle genre known as 'classic banjo'. A recent discussion titled 'fingerstyle', about the introduction of a dedicated section for that genre on Banjo Hangout, can be found in the 'newest posts' section and a search of the term 'classic banjo' should reveal several more threads. However, the best source of information is classic-banjo.ning.com where you will find a video section containing a selection of very fine performances of this style of playing. If it appeals to you, there is an extensive repertory available, written in standard notation, including tutor method books and both solo and duet pieces.

Clawhammer tends to be very key-centric as tunings are usually built around the tonic of the key being played. This tends to limit your choices, esp. when starting out.

IOW, much of the repertoire has a specific tuning. If you want to play in another key, you may have to retune the instrument. For Clawhammer, I use two banjos and ~5 tunings.

Playing with orchestral instruments may require non-standard techniques and odd tunings. Depends on the repertoire.

With a Viola background, a Tenor Banjo may be a better choice. It is tuned in 5ths (CGDA) just like a Viola. The Old-time lawhammer repertoire isn't well suited to the Tenor Banjo, but nearly everything else (Jazz, Blues, Dixieland, Show Tunes, Ragtime, Classical, etc.) is.

You need to narrow your genre focus to really figure this out. Listening to lots of tunes and watching them being played by banjoists is how you figure that out. Take your time!

Which banjo centric type of music do wish to play most?

Do you have time to learn both? Learning to useyour fingers and some of the bluegrass rolls might come in handy at some point. I would focus on claw for many of the reasons stated above, but if you have the time, learning to pick some grass is also a valuable effort.

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Originally posted by Honeyduck

I just recently became interested in playing the Banjo, but I'm not sure what style is right for me. The only other instrument I've played is the Viola. If I picked it up, I would probably play mostly solo, but one of my friends plays the flute and a few other wind instruments so I may potentially play with them. I really like the playful sound of clawhammer, but a ton of tutorials are for bluegrass. It would be very helpful if I could get help deciding which to learn, and their pros and cons.

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Fingerstyle banjo with flute family - and especially the piccolo - is a beautiful combination with a long tradition. It is also probably the most adaptable stand-alone solo banjo technique. If you're looking for banjo to fit in easily with your flute-playing friends this would be worth exploring. It may also tempt the flute players to extend their range to piccolo. The 6-key D piccolo is the go-to and can play in the finger-style banjo's wider range of keys (C, G, F, Bb, Eb, Ab and their relative minor keys) 
Originally the piccolos played with banjo were typically wooden body 6-key pre-Boehm 'simple-system' instruments. But no reason at all that the same-sound modern Boehm instruments your friends will be familiar with wouldn't fit just as well.

Huge traditional repertoire and the sheet music is out there. But the beauty is that you would not be restricted by genre; finger-style banjo and piccolo can play anything you like. Just an idea. And that doesn't stop you also learning to play your banjo clawhammer-fashion.

"but I'm not sure what style is right for me."
All these are good, solid suggestions. My only thought is "Which one sounds better to you?" I'm not a diehard bluegrass fan, but love the ring of a picked string. That path led me to melodic style. I didn't even know it existed when I started.
All other considerations aside, which sound makes your heart sit up & take notice?

And FWIW- One of my favorite John Hartford quotes :"Style is determined by your limitations."

I have lots of style!

My suggestion: listen to a lot of music; i.e., clawhammer, bluegrass, jazz, blues, etc. Find one genre that speaks to you more than any other and then learn that type.

I play both bluegrass and clawhammer and, for me, I prefer the bluegrass sound. That's personal preference and that's what you should figure out before you invest in a banjo, lessons, etc.

Just my thoughts.

Well if you get a banjo with a resonator, you can more readily play both styles. Thats how Ralph Stanley did it

Play the music that you like listening to. The more you listen, the more likely you will be to enjoy it and stick with it.

To the left of this page, go to media, to jukebox, and listen to the various styles and discover whatever one you like best. Ir is banjo and therefore all good (ha!). Bluegrass is basically stage/performance music. I prefer clawhammer. It is much less "busy (wall of quick notes), sounds good for solo folk plus songs, and is fun to jam with others on old time fiddle tunes/dance music. A well played bluegrass banjo has a lot of "sparkle" and you can even follow the melody being played. A 4 string tenor is best for Irish music or where you play tunes going rapidly from one key to another. Follow your muse. banjered

I’m a viola player too! I started with tenor banjo at first then I studied also five string banjo, both clawhammer and three fingers… every banjo style has his specific qualities, I love to play every kind of banjo!
So if clawhammer is what you feel would be ok for you go with clawhammer, once you get used to the basic strum you can play al lot of music… then you get confident with double thumbing you have a lot of possibilities!

I attach two songs on tenor and five string clawhammer as an exemple

My advice when decide to take up the banjo, spend more than you think you can afford, you will spend less in the end. Cheap banjos are more difficult to play, you’ll upgrade eventually.
Look at Pisgah, Ome, Bart Reiter, and the list goes on. Lots of wonderful small banjo makers to choose from, starting at $1000 to $1600.

A fella at one of the bluegrass jams plays the flute. I have also seen flute in celtic style arrangements. Ive seen both 3 finger and clawhammer in practice with guitarists that are unfamiliar with both old time and bluegrass. Listen to a couple of tunes that are played in both styles. Angeline the baker, little sadie, john hardy and worried man blues would all be tunes where you can find examples in each style. There are many others of course.

You can always take a few lessons to see which feels more intuitive.

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Originally posted by banjered

 Bluegrass is basically stage/performance music. 

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Bluegrass started out as performance music but the folkies of the 50s and 60s turned it into something more participatory and informal (as they did with old-time dance tunes as well). There are a lot of people, myself included, who are much more focused on the informal jamming side of bluegrass than the commercial performance side.

For me a major factor is time. I could easily become a musical junkie and never do anything else. Knowing that about myself, I have never picked up afiddle. banjered

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Originally posted by banjered

For me a major factor is time. I could easily become a musical junkie and never do anything else. Knowing that about myself, I have never picked up afiddle. banjered

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Hey......go ahead and pick up (and try) a fiddle!

You will never regret it!

If you try both styles right away, you may come to a decision sooner. I started with Pete Seeger's style, then attempted bluegrass but the "melodic" aspect of clawhammer appealed to me, and, after Seeger style, came easily (at east the basics). I just didn't want to spend years and years mastering the basic bluegrass rolls.

Of course, bluegrass and clawhammer aren't the only styles. I've dabbled in two finger thumb lead. Check out Sean Barth's site, Thumb Lead Banjer: 2ftlbanjer.wordpress.com/welcome/ for a different experience. As Ken Bloom said, there was a time when players on one side of the mountain didn't know what players did on the other side of the mountain. Then came radio and records, and styles became more homogeneous. It takes a little digging, but you ought to come out with a style you can live with - or more than one.

NNYJoe:  One of my favorite John Hartford quotes : "Style is determined by your limitations."
I have lots of style!

^^ Reminds me of:  I/you/?? have real class .... too bad it's all third!    

Clawhammer can be a good place to start, and in my opinion is a fast way to get off your feet in terms of learning the fretboard and improvisation. It also can feel very restricting rhythmically sometimes, and a lot of the challenge comes from finding workarounds to creatively fit the notes in the places you want them to be, or sometimes omitting notes altogether. Almost feels like a puzzle sometimes. Don't feel like you need to go down that path either, there's many distinct styles of fingerpicking on the banjo well outside the realm of bluegrass.