Did Incas write and keep records?

Answer 1

Yes they did

Incans did not write and keep records, which is why much of the information we have now is based on interpretation. There is only one thing the Incans did use to record information, which is called quipo, but no one can figure out what that means yet, all we know so far is that they used it to keep records, related to math. So, the quipo method is no use to us at all. Scientists have collected information on Inca from many sources. One of their sources is from Spanish conquistadors' journals from their invasion in Inca.

Anyway, the answer to your question is a NO.

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Go to http://Archaeology.about.com/od/americanancientwriting/a/quipu.htm

There they describe how that quipu were, we now think, used for very much more than just numerical information.

"The Inka kept their accounts, their genealogy, their astronomical calculations, and (probably) their stories on a complicated system of cords and knots, called quipu (also spelled khipu). We know this in part because once the Jesuit missionaries of the Spanish Inquisition recognized the range of function of the quipu, they did their best to destroy as many as humanly possible. The description of the quipu as "a system of cords and knots" does not do justice to their complexity; and it is that complexity that is so convincing. Quipus have information stored in them using cord color, cord length, knot type, knot location, cord twist direction. ...

... a new book called Narrative Threads, edited by Jeffrey Quilter and Gary Urton, describes how a handful of scholars is working towards cracking the code."

If writing is defined as "a system of symbolic representation of facts which permanently stores those facts for later retrieval by anyone familiar with the system used" - then the Inca had writing, but using cloth rather than paper, or payrus or stone or clay.

What is still in doubt is whether the quipu match another defintion of writing which says, "a system of permently recording the spoken word." However, some other systems of "writing" such a Egyptian heiroglyphs might also fail to qualify under that defintion.

So the answer to your question should start, "The Incas certainly kept records - they appear to have had an efficient bureaucracy running a large empire." But on the question as to whether they had writing, you have to start off with, "It all depends on what you mean by "writing".