This article is meant, first, as a brief introduction to South African music studies and some of its specific problems for the Czech (ethno)musicological community, second, as a summary of some recent developments in the field, and third, perhaps most importantly, as a starting point for my research in the South African popular music culture. As a red thread, one basic idea goes through the whole text: the problem of essentialism and binary oppositions, how (if it is possible) to go beyond and what methods we can choose to reach this goal. Drawing on particular examples, I plead for a broadly based cultural analysis, new comparative approach and ethnographically informed local-scale studies. My findings and suggestions are based on my immediate experience with the South African environment – lasting more than fourteen months between 2005 and 2008 – as both a student and field researcher in popular music culture in South Africa and Lesotho.
In the present day, people increasingly talk about the afforestation of cities and towns as a means of improving the environment. The problem of the gradual incorporation of verdure to the settlement and of its role in the past is being analysed in the present article on the example of the changes in time of the verdure in the areas used jointly by the inhabitants of the village of Podhradie. In the named locality these were, namely, areas that were often reserved and enclosed, with a particular land-scaping arrangement (school garden and cemetery) and, on the other hand, the public space (including the so called „dance circle“ i.e. the public area used for dance festivals etc.). The composition of the botanical species differed in the particular cases, because of its use (for example in the school garden that serves for practical education dominate the fruit trees and vegetables), economic causes (while designing the public park it was possible to utilize the advantageous offer from the local services) or the time horizont of the planting (for example, the older part of the wood species on the „dance circle“ is composed of plum trees, the newer part mainly of lindens, poplars and birches). The last example demonstrates the changes in the structure of verdure in concordance with shiftings in perceiving its function. While until about the eighteenth century the economic reasons stood behind the planting of primarily the utility trees, since then it has been increasingly regarded also to the aesthetic point of view. The regular bus line that since 1950 has connected Podhradie to the regional centre Martin where many of the local inhabitants found work enabled the spreading of the urban style ofarranging the environment and also thepossibility to buy new types of plants. Decorative wood species were implemented in the composition of the local verdure and influenced the appearance of the village.