The Asuriní began to be studied in the 1960s. During this period, research into the Asuriní language was begun by members of the Summer Institute of Linguistics: Carl Harrison, Robin Solly, Velda Nicholson, Catherine Aberdour and Anette Tomkins. These surveys continued until the 1970s, resulting in publications such as Gramática Asuriní written by Harrison (SIL, 1980), as well as Emogeta: Cartilha Asuriní (1977) and Aspectos da Língua Asurini (1978), both produced by Nicholson and published by SIL.

The 1960s also saw the start of anthropological research by Roque Laraia and Expedito Arnaud. During this period, Arnaud published a number of articles providing general information concerning the group, referring to contact, kinship terminology and subsistence activities.

Roque Laraia undertook his research among the Asuriní in 1962, staying with them for a period of four months. On this occasion, the community suffered the consequences of a tragic process of depopulation, a result of successive epidemics brought in the wake of 'pacification.' This, the group of 190 individuals contacted in 1953 was by 1962 reduced to 34 Indians living at the SPI post, 10 scattered among non-Indians and 14 in the forest - the latter made up the Pacajá group, with whom Laraia had no contact.

The enormous population loss experienced by the Asuriní on one hand, and Laraia's theoretico-methodological approach on the other, explain why he did not produce a specific and detailed monograph on the Asuriní. His research was included in the 'Areas of Interethnic Friction' project, directed by Roberto Cardoso de Oliveira: its results were published in the article A Fricção Interétnica no Médio Tocantins (1964) and the book Índios e Castanheiros, which the author published in 1967 in co-authorship with Roberto da Matta. In these works, the main information on the Asuriní concerns their history of contact. Data on social organization is restricted to kinship terminology and marriage rules, which are analyzed by the author.

Another concern which guided Laraia's works was the comparative perspective. Thus, his decision to work with the Asuriní stemmed from information indicating their similarity with the Suruí, among whom Laraia had already pursued research. The result of this comparative study can be found in the author's article Akuáwa-Asuriní e Suruí - Análise de Dois Grupos Tupi (1972), which also provides short but previously unpublished information on Asuriní material culture, economic activities and shamanism.

The comparative perspective is also present in his doctoral thesis Organização Social dos Tupi Contemporâneos, presented in 1972 and published under the title Tupi: índios do Brasil atual. As could be expected from a comparative work, the information on the indigenous groups are generalized. The author does not approach the Asuriní cultural system as a whole, as this would only be possible in a specific monograph on this group. Even so, it is in his thesis that Laraia provides the largest amount of data on the Asuriní, approaching other aspects of social organization beyond the kinship terminology and marriage rules analyzed in earlier works.

More recently in the 1980s, the Asuriní were studied by the anthropologist Lúcia Andrade. This research took place in the context of the renewed studies of Tupi Peoples, undertaken by a series of anthropologists from various teaching and research institutions among Tupi groups in Amazonia only recently contacted at the time, and also among other already known peoples such as the Asuriní.
Lúcia Andrade undertook field research between 1982 and 1989 which resulted in her master's dissertation O Corpo e o Cosmos, Relações de Gênero e o Sobrenatural entre os Asuriní do Tocantins presented to the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo in 1992. The dissertation examines two central themes, shamanism and gender relations, which provide the basis for an analysis of Asuriní cosmology and their notion of the Person.