The thesis is a study of the 'ownership', production and marketing of frankincense in Somalia. It considers first the various local and wider uses of frankincense, both industrial and non-industrial. It then examines the place of frankincense trees in the general classification of property in Somalia, with further consideration of the dominance of pastoral concepts in the frankincense sector and sedentary cultivation in northern Somalia. The thesis also analysis the organisation and social relations of frankincense production prior to 1969, and examines the subsequent transformations which have followed the introduction of cooperatives in this sector of the Somali economy.