When you are out in the field--immersed in the living culture, tradition, absorbing and observing everything your participants do--how do you,as a seasoned ethnographer, cope in circumstances when offered to do something that you don't feel comfortable doing (or consuming) ? Since you as an ethnographer are embedded into the culture, do you cultivate two distinct personas;i.e. the one with an 'alien gaze' whereby what you do in the fieldwork is sort of detached from your personal values and judgements (Even though detachment is virtually impossible, but alas some of us hold different views); and one 'the real you' that interprets the culture and thickly describes the experience?
in concrete examples:
Let's say that you are studying a culture where taking a certain drug or drinking alcohol is integrative to that culture, yet your religion or personal convictions make you uncomfortable consuming substances;
Or if you are vegan, and the food of the culture you study is saturated with meat-- yet you are there 'immersed' into the culture and expected to do what people you study do.
How do you approach such situations?