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The earliest records on the Apiaká register that their villages consisted of a colossal house for hundreds of people, with a central aisle with three rows of props that supported a two-level roof. The spaces on the sides were divided among the several nuclear families.

Today the villages are built near large rivers, with the houses lined along the banks. Each nuclear family lives in one, generally built by the man near his father’s or his father-in-law’s, depending on the locality in which the wedding was held, so that the map of the village mirrors kinship and social relations.

Houses and kitchens are built with material obtained from the surrounding forest. The architecture style reproduces the houses of the local rubber gatherers; as an alternative to palm leaves for roofing, the Apiaká sometimes use a plant called taboinha. When the kitchen is not part of the house, it consists of an adjacent, smaller building, occasionally including low walls.

Every individual - whether woman or man - owns objects of his/her own, obtained through his/her work or in exchange for other items, and which are discarded when the owner dies. When that happens, the objects gotten from the whites - pots and pans, firearms - are inherited by the surviving spouse or the child who lives closest to the deceased. The house is torn down, but the material may be used in another construction.

The Apiaká have adopted the Portuguese/Brazilian kinship terminology, including terms of compadrio (the relationship between the father of a child and his/her godfather) and of godfather-godson corresponding to spiritual kinship (Catholic).

Monogamous marriage predominated in the past, even though a 19th Century traveler registered cases of polygeny, in which each Apiaká male was entitled to two wives and the cacique (chief) was allowed to have three. Today, marriages are monogamous; inter-ethnic unions are predominant, both with other indigenous groups and with whites, and do not require any previous initiation rite. Women are considered ready for marriage after their first period, and men after they turn 16 approximately. When intra-tribal, marriages are preferably between cousins. Residence is patrilocal when intra-tribal and matrilocal when inter-ethnic. When one of the spouses dies, a new marriage for the surviving wife or husband is stimulated, even if the age difference between the new partners is big. The situation of an unwed mother is considered irregular.

Children socialize at home and at the school maintained by the Catholic Mission. Newborns are kept by their mothers, who are helped by teenage girls. The father holds his child as well, but in case of need it is the mother who takes care of the baby. Infants are wrapped in cloth, like non-Indian children; small children wear just shorts, or are kept naked when crawling or taking their first steps. Since very early they are taught to respect his/her parents, godparents and the adults in general. At the same time, the spirit of self-esteem and freedom is stimulated in them.

Adult Apiaká attribute high value to formal school education, where the interest concentrates in reading and writing in Portuguese and in math - important instruments in their relationship with the national society.

The Apiaká have an egalitarian society, in which the leaders are the older men. The leader is the person who holds and represents the society’s longings and objectives and takes the initiative in the tasks that will benefit everyone. The Apiaká say: "among us no one gives orders". Although the women do not take part in the political decisions, they manifest their wishes through their husbands. “Foreign relations” with the national society are carried out by the younger males who show ability for such task. All adults relate freely with the Jesuit Mission and their Kayabí neighbors.

There are rules of conduct for the different categories and social ties. Father and father-in-law are respected by their children, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, regardless of the age difference. Among relatives of the same generation, relationships are submitted to less severe rules, and there is room for playing. The Kayabi that are recently incorporated via marriage adopt an attitude of submission via-à-vis their fathers-in-law, despite the fact that they, in general, consider themselves superior to the Apiaká. Disagreements between leaders result in confrontations and threats; the solution to them is for those who came last to form a new village. The presence of missionaries reduces and/or prevents conflicts to burst open. Matrimonial infidelities are object of discrete comments, often somewhat malicious. There is no room for the expression of feelings of guilt and shame, as opposed to self-esteem and freedom.

The political structure is determined by kinship, since individuals agglutinate around the more aged ascendants. Thus the more married daughters near him and sons who built their houses close to his, the more powerful is a man, since he is able to congregate forces in case of conflict with another Apiaká sub-group or with the Kayabí.

In the wars they waged in the past, in addition to bows and arrows, the Apiaká used a spear richly adorned with macaw feathers that looked more like an ornament than a weapon. The Mundurukú, Tapayúna and Nambikwára were their traditional enemies. The Apiaká sacrificed their adult war prisoners, who were eaten ritually, while the young prisoners continued to be raised with the Apiaká own adolescents until they reached adulthood, when they were festively sacrificed. The right to eat human flesh was reserved to those with a square tattooed around their mouths, a mark displayed by those who had been submitted to the initiation ritual. Despite being a people of warriors, the Apiaká traditionally maintained peaceful relations with non-Indians.