Hmm maybe I was not very clear in my last post ;)

require_relative is defined in Object

 ruby -ve 'p method( :require_relative)'
ruby 1.9.1p378 (2010-01-10 revision 26273) [i686-linux]
#<Method: Object#require_relative>

 ruby -ve 'p Object.method( :require_relative )'
ruby 1.9.1p378 (2010-01-10 revision 26273) [i686-linux]
#<Method: Class(Object)#require_relative>

However

ruby -ve 'p Object.methods.grep( /require/ )'
ruby 1.9.1p378 (2010-01-10 revision 26273) [i686-linux]
[]
^^^^ ????

Maybe a tiny bug here?

Cheers
R.

-- 
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
-- Alan Kay