How to find any methods ancestor chain?

Question

class Taco
  # . . .
end

Get ancestor chain:

Taco.ancestors
 #=> [Taco, Object, Kernel, BasicObject]

Say I want to find the "parent" class and it's ancestor chain for a ruby defined method. How would I go about doing that?

E.g. method_missing.parent.ancestors

And if everything is supposed to inherit from BasicObject why doesn't Kernel?

Object.ancestors
 #=> [Object, Kernel, BasicObject]

Kernel.ancestors
 #=> [Kernel]

BasicObject.ancestors
 #=> [BasicObject]

Also Class inherits from Class and Module but why does my Taco class ancestor's chain not inherit from them and instead inherits directly from Object forward?

Class.ancestors
#=> [Class, Module, Object, Kernel, BasicObject]

Answer 1

You are looking for owner.

method(:puts).owner 
  #=> Kernel
method(:puts).owner.ancestors
  #=> [Kernel]

Back to your taco example:

class Taco
  def self.eat
    "YUM"
  end
end

Taco.method(:eat).owner
  #=> #<Class:Taco>
Taco.method(:eat).owner.ancestors
  #=> [Class, Module, Object, PP::ObjectMixin, Kernel, BasicObject]

Kernel is an instance of module. Check this out:

Kernel.class.ancestors
  #=> [Module, Object, PP::ObjectMixin, Kernel, BasicObject]

Here is some further reading on the ruby object model if you're interested. Also, here's an image stolen from google images that may help solidify those concepts.