Katya Zhao

Summer 2024

Anthropology in the Temple

People in the U.S. and other Western countries aren’t shy when it comes to borrowing Buddhist practices, like meditation and mindfulness practice, to find some inner peace. But what health benefits do Theravada, or Thai, Buddhists themselves get from their relationships to temples and monks in the U.S.? 

Doctoral student Katya Zhao is studying Thai Buddhists living in Denver to understand how their connections with local temples and spirituality affect their moral agency and well-being. 

“Ninety percent of people in Thailand consider themselves Buddhist, and we know Buddhism is very important where people will offer food, toiletries, and money, or ask monks for advice on important matters,” Zhao says.  

Zhao is interviewing members of Wat Buddhawararam in Denver, studying if Thai Buddhists in Colorado are keeping up similar routines with Buddhism – and what people are getting from those habits.  

Other studies previously examined the wellbeing and health benefits of seeking ordination among novice and fully ordained monks and practicing specific rituals among laypeople (practicing Buddhists who are not monks). Zhao’s study focuses on a broader, “deeper” scale looking at the effects of temple involvement and specific activities, including volunteer work, educational services, and conversations with monastics, among Denver’s Thai Buddhist population.

“I’m investigating how these types of conventions might impact people’s wellbeing,” Zhao says. “Do they have therapeutic benefits?” 

To get answers, Zhao is doing some traditional cultural anthropology: leading semi-structured interviews and conducting participant observation to collect ethnographic information about participants. But she is also collecting data with cognitive anthropological methods, aiming for quantitative and qualitative data showcasing people’s mental patterns and values – that’s “cognitive structures” and “cultural domains”, in anthropological parlance – related to Theravada Buddhist practices and well-being.  

That “mixed methods” approach – using both quantitative and qualitative research – is increasingly valuable among cultural anthropologists. And Zhao and her advisor Professor Jeffrey Snodgrass and fellow doctoral student Seth Sagstetter have the study to prove it.  

Anthropology at a Crossroads 

Snodgrass, Zhao, Sagstetter, and other coauthors published a study in Annals in Anthropological Practice in Spring 2024 examining current practices among U.S. anthropologists.

showing expanded use of mixed methods for cultural anthropology research. From a survey of peers, the CSU scholars and colleagues found that cultural anthropologists are taking a “toolkit approach” using various, complementary methods to collect data and information. 

“US cultural anthropology is at a crossroads,” the authors state in the article, suggesting that those who rely solely on ethnographic or traditional research methods are missing opportunities to go “deeper” with their findings.

“Even when anthropologists are not explicitly stating causality, they’re implying it,” Zhao says. But when researchers only use qualitative data, they may shy away from making more direct connections and conclusions. That matters because more explicit causal arguments can lead to policy and behavior change.   

Through his career, Snodgrass’ own research has collected and incorporated subjects’ brain scans and bloodwork to collect biomedical and cognitive data to understand people’s mental states and wellbeing across different lifestyles and behaviors.  

Snodgrass, Zhao, and Sagstetter suggest the findings reveal a moment for a re-visioning of cultural anthropology and suggest “toolkit” approaches hold promise for impactful research in the future.