「文化生存」對未來的願景是，所有原住民族與生俱來的權利，能深層、大量地進入他們的生活，與他們的原生土地、族語、傳統信仰和活躍的文化共生存，而也能經過原住民自決而被推崇。文化生存提倡的是原住民族的權利，並支持原住民社區在文化和政治上的生存自決。「文化生存」在1960年代因南美亞馬遜和世界其他偏遠地區開放的衝擊而成立，當世界各國的政府對這塊未開發地區的資源予取予求時，這一潮流對原住居民造成的重大衝擊，突顯了捍衛「開發中受難者」人權的急迫需要。「文化生存」由哈佛大學人類學家大衛‧梅伯瑞-路易斯和他的太太皮雅為幫助原住民族抗爭而成立。

Cultural Survival envisions a future where all Indigenous Peoples live by their inherent rights deeply and richly interwoven in their aboriginal lands, native languages, spiritual traditions, and dynamic cultures; and whose Indigenous rights are honored through self-determination. Cultural Survival advocates for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and supports Indigenous communities in their self-determining work for cultural and political survival. The impulse for the founding of Cultural Survival arose during the 1960s with the “opening up” of the Amazonian regions of South America and other remote regions elsewhere. As governments all over the world sought to extract resources from areas that had never before been developed, the drastic effects this trend had on the regions'' Indigenous Peoples underscored the urgent need to defend the human rights of these "victims of progress." Cultural Survival was founded by Harvard University anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis and his wife Pia to assist Indigenous Peoples in their struggles.