The Bakairi are a riverine people, agriculturalists and fishers; hunting and gathering complement these activities. They live dispersed in various groups, each of which dominates a specific territory delimited by rivers and brooks and with rights over its resources. As a rule, the name of these politico-territorial units corresponds to the names of the nearby rivers or brooks. An individual or a family is identified as belonging to the place in which he or she lives, there being a relation between identity and territoriality. The local group is the largest sociological unit in this society.

The local group is in general comprised of a group of siblings of both sexes, or of two groups that have married amongst themselves, being led by the individual who joined political forces towards that end. It is formed by a variable number of domestic groups most of which are comprised of elementary families, that is, basically father, mother, and children. The chiefs of these groups are the props that sustain the political and legal order, through a council. It’s up to the leader to maintain the delicate equilibrium between the groups and represent them before other local groups and non-Indians.

The residential units are arranged in a linear fashion, forming streets, a style that was introduced by agents of the SPI. But there is always a place, to the side of the leader’s house, which is like a center, where they hold meetings and rituals. In some groups there is the kadoêti, the "mens’ house", in which the ritual masks are kept.

The elementary family guards a strong principle of its own autonomy. It can break established alliances and go live in another local group where it has kin, either maternal or paternal, of either of the spouses. The recently married men live in the house of their wife’s father – with the exception of the firstborn sons of leaders – until the birth of the first child at which time they can choose where they will live, whether with his or his wife’s kin. The kinship system is bilateral, that is, paternal and maternal kin have equal importance. Terminologically father and father’s brother are equated, as are mother and mother’s sister. There are distinct terms for father’s sister and mother’s brother.

Marriage is preferentially between socially and biologically distant kin. One cannot speak the names of affinal kin, whether real or potential. The names are derived from deceased consanguineal kin, which can only be pronounced after they have been put back into circulation. Ideally it is the maternal and paternal grandmothers who name the child. Each of them recovers at least one name of their deceased consanguineal kin of the same sex as the child. A person inherits at least four names, two from the maternal line, two from the paternal. There are individuals who accumulate ten names, which confers prestige on them. The father and father’s kin are forbidden to pronounce the names deriving from the maternal line, and vice versa. Besides these names, they have others in Portuguese.