You've heard of Anthropologists becoming so enchanted by
exotic cultural practices they adopt them.
What about those who are so repulsed by the people they are studying they struggle to hide their loathing?
You might very well find yourself studying a group you find revolting. If you abandon the field, you might never get another.
You have to try to work for indifference, to be that objective observer.
When you can't suppress your disgust at the culture you have to detach and redirect.
If you are fortunate to 'day trip' to the culture, meaning you aren't living among your subjects, take two days off. Claim you are compiling your data.
If you are not so fortunate, you may have to stick it out another few days without 'relief.'
In both cases, you must find some aspect of the culture not entirely disgusting. It could be the relationship of the people to the environment, it could be their music, Whatever you can find that is at least acceptable, focus on that.
Then retreat.
Write rough notes during your absence using the 'acceptable' practice as the centrepiece. Flesh out the areas around it, finding the 'blanks'.
To give you a simple image; imagine you are studying the denizens of a local bar. The patrons are career drunks.
What do you do?
Talking to them is unpleasant, even sitting beside them takes all your fortitude. So you focus on their relationship to the bartender.
You interview the bartender, you gain his insights into his customers, their drink of choice, etc.
You notice the decor or lack of it, the condition of the furniture, the rest rooms, etc.
You can do a perfectly acceptable thesis by moving the monograph from 'Patrons at Murphy's Bar', to "The Role of the Bartender at Murphy's Bar."
During your absence from 'Murphy's Bar', while organising your notes into a readable form, you discover necessary questions and lacuna.
When you return to the culture, you are directed by those questions. Your subsequent advent is limited to the data which completes your study.
You don't need to deal with the unpleasant aspects, save in passing. You should have enough data on the narrower topic to write a full thesis.
As your scope is so limited, you will discover nuances you had overlooked. Small but significant details so at the end of your submission, no one could know more about that narrow topic than you.
