Distressed, you are right that culture plays a big role in how people respond.
But even within the context of your responsabilities within your own culture, you still have a right to emotional sanity.

I had a situation for several years where in my twenties I lived with a woman who was one of my primary abusers starting at age 11. I was dirt poor while trying to put myself through college and working two full time jobs in the summer. She was in charge of the money and everything else. I was trapped because I needed to finish my college in order to have a real chance at being able to support myself. So I would come home and she would either be very loving to me - OR (on most days) she would put me down and walk all over me emotionally.

It was at this time when a teacher saw I was in trouble and made me go to my first T - a college T. When he figured out I couldn't leave the situation, he taught me how to emotionally be able to withstand the situation. It sounds like that is what you may need to do. So here are some of those "tricks" I used until I was able to set up my own rules. Even now these things help me in situations where I have to be around toxic people.

1) Everyone is entitled to their own opinion - even if it is wrong. IE - anyone can be an @$$ if they want to be! They have a right to their feelings and I can respect this without taking it for my own.

2) Learn how to stay YOU. When you are around anyone who has a different opinion or emotion, you can respect all of that without changing your own mind. You do not have to agree with anyone. You do not have to change the way you feel just because someone else feels a certain way.

I had a big problem due to the abuse history of allowing myself to become inside who the abuser told me I was. "You are DIRTY!" --- sooooo I would go from feeling very good about myself to "Oh my! She said I was dirty so I MUST BE!"

I was not even aware that I was doing this! And honestly, it mad me very angry with college T when he told me I was doing this! But the more I watched myself as I was interacting in those situations, the more I saw he was spot-on.

Once you realize that you are allowing yourself to be changed by the opinions and emotions of those around you, the more power you have to decide for yourself how you want to feel about things.

Those are the main two things that really allowed me to start gaining my own peace even while I was in the midst of emotional war. The funny part is that the more power I found for myself, the angrier my abuser became. It soon became very clear to me that she was doing these things to push my buttons and manipulate me.
She had all sorts of interesting reactions - the silent treatment, the "you don't love me" blame game, and the "You are so horrid!" routine. But I found that if I maintained my internal peace and refused to allow someone else to tell me how I was going to feel, the stronger I became.

Bottom line is that you do have a choice on how you feel. You don't have a choice over the way your culture acts. You don't have a choice on who your relatives are. And you can't change anyone. People are people. BUT you can choose to start becoming aware of how you respond to these situations. And you can choose to not just be pushed into no-win situations internally. When you stop fighting, you do win. You can choose to maintain YOU - your own emotions and your own space inside of your skin. And that is a freedom no one can take away from you.