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The traditional Maku villages had a population varying between 25 and 30 inhabitants - about six domestic groups. The Maku domestic group comprises a husband, wife or wives, unmarried children and perhaps some adjoined family members, who may be close relatives, widows or unmarried adults, of the husband or the wife or wives. Generally, each domestic group possesses its own fire hearth, around which its members gather to sleep and eat. As for the houses, these amount to wall-less huts, able to shelter between one and four domestic groups (hearths), linked by close kinship ties, that may be equally patrilateral or matrilateral. A village of 25 inhabitants usually has about three houses. These are situated in a clearing, at the top of a hill, close to a non-navigable stream or creek. The swiddens are located around the houses or in nearby clearings (from 5 to 60 minutes walking time), which in the future come to mark past village sites. Each domestic group possesses on average two 50 x 50 m swiddens, always set in communal clearings.

A cluster of proximate villages, at a distance between one hour and one day by foot, form a regional group. As a rule, the regional groups each speak a distinct dialect of the same language. Thus, each Maku linguistic group divides at least into two regional/dialectical groups. The Hupdu, for example, possess three regional groups (three dialects), separated from each other by navigable water courses, whose shores are occupied by 'river Indians'. The adult members of the same regional/dialectical group all know each other by name, as well as by the kinship relations that unite them. In contrast, the knowledge possessed about speakers from neighbouring dialects, people with whom they have no demonstrable genealogical relations, is fairly shallow. In other words, the regional/dialectical group is a strongly endogamic nexus. The average frequency of endogamic marriages - that is, between people born in the same regional group - is 80%. The average size of the regional group in the area of the Brazilian Uaupés is 260 people - about 10 neighbouring villages.

The territory of the regional/dialectical group is a result of the juxtaposition of various adjacent hunting territories, each of which surrounds a village. In effect, the men of a village of 25 to 30 inhabitants usually hunt within a radius of 7 to 10 km around the village. Radiating out from this territory are a series of paths, some linking together Maku villages. others leading to riverside villages, others still leading as far as the hunting encampments. Each village possesses an average of 8 hunt camps within a 7 to 10 km radius around it. When the village exceeds a level of 30 or 40 inhabitants, it splits into two or more villages, since in a large village the hunters are forced to travel more than 10 km in order to find sufficient game. The lengthy duration of a village at a particular site (about five years) is also a motive for change, in order to relocate the hunter's radius of activities and thereby explore new hunting territories.