From the XVIth Century on, the Palikur are cited in different types of documents. They appear in travellers’ reports, Catholic missionary reports, Portuguese and French employee reports, and scientific expedition reports.

In the primary sources, the information is almost always fragmentary, and often the Indians of the region are mixed up with each other. But, even so, it’s possible to get data that clarify certain aspects, principally on the political and economic relations maintained with the Europeans. On a few occasions cultural aspects are mentioned, emphasizing the exoticism “of these Indians".

In the XXth Century, the writings are more elaborate, based on field research and ethnographic references. In 1926, Curt Nimuendajú, after a stay of four months among the Palikur, published one of the most complete monographs on them in German, called Die Palikur-Indianer und Ihre Nachbarn. In this work, the system of social organization, economy, and internal and external politics appear, for the first time, in a specialized way. Besides the description resulting from fieldwork, Nimuendajú also undertook extensive research in the historical sources, in which he situates the Palikur in the context of the region of the Uaçá. A version of the manuscript translated to Portuguese, which Nimuendú himself did, is being prepared for publication by the NHII (Center for Indigenous History and Indigenism) of the University of São Paulo, revised by Professor Thekla Hartmann and with an introduction by Luís Donisete B. Grupioni.

At the end of the 1960s, the researcher Expedito Arnaud, of the Goeldi Museum, began producong a series of articles based on three periods of fieldwork undertaken in the Uaçá region between 1964 and 1967. The articles that he wrote on the Palikur are organized around the dichotomy of tradition, understood as ancestral beliefs, habits and customs, and change, related to the action of the SPI, and, principally, to the beginning of the process of protestant evangelization. These texts were published in the bulletins of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, where one can find all of the documentary collection left by Expedito Arnaud, who died in 1992, including a manuscript translation in Portuguese of the ethnography by Curt Nimuendajú on the Palikur by Mark Münzel.

Several French anthropologists have also researched among the Palikur. Among these, we may cite Pierre and Françoise Grenand, Simone Dreyfus and M. Mattioni. Seeking to understand how the depopulation of the ethnic groups of the region to the north of the mouth of the Amazon, the Grenands have reconstructed the history of the Palikur through historical documents, comparing the written sources with oral history. Besides ethnohistorical works, they have also produced individual texts focusing on different aspects of culture and social organization, such as language and kinship.

Simone Dreyfus has also developed ethnohistoric studies, focusing on the peoples of the coastal region in which the Palikur appear, in a peripheral way, through the relations which they maintained with the Galibi-Kaliña. But, it was the publication of two small ethnographic articles – based on field research among the Palikur of French Guiana, and published at the beginning of the 1980s – which have made her work a basic reference. The book by M. Mattioni is also situated in the field of ethnographies; in it, there is a detailed exposition of Palikur socio-cultural characteristics.

In 1998, Alan Passes defended his doctoral thesis in the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of St. Andrews, which, in his words, is an anthropological exploration of aspects of intercommunication, in which the research focuses on the concepts and practices of Pa’ikwené speaking and hearing, as the author prefers. Passes’ research was undertaken among the Palikur who live in Saint Georges, in the village of Deuxième Village Espérance, but the author also worked with informants from other villages from this city, from Caienne and Urukauá. This is the first academic thesis defended on the Palikur. It is a well-organized thesis constructed on a consistent ethnography.

In terms of production on the Palikur language, the texts of Harold and Diana Grren, linguists of the Summer Institute of linguistics (SIL), are noteworthy. In all, there are 52 lay books written in Pa’ikwaki, including primers, a dictionary, books of stories, and 14 titles which are more directed to the church, among which is the complete New Testament. Besides the texts produced for the community, Diana Green has published in the Bulletin of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, a linguistic article on the Palikur numerical system.

Since 1996, Artionka Capiberibe has undertaken research among the Palikur of Urukauá for her Master’s thesis which was defended in the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology (PPGAS) of UNICAMP advised by Prof. Dr. Robin Wright. The central theme of the thesis is the process of Pentecostal evangelization and its present configuration. This Master’s thesis is part of the research group of the region of Uaçá, which has been developing Master’s and Doctoral theses on the indigenous societies of this region, and is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Lux Vidal. All of the researchers of the Uaçá Group also participate in the thematic project on “Indigenous Societies and their Boundaries in the Southeast of the Guianas", developed by the NHII/ USP, coordinated by Professors L. Vidal and Dominique T. Gallois and financed by the FAPESP.