Green phone icons in contact connections

[hereathome]

When I open my contacts list and select any contact, there is a field called "connection" with multiple green icons with phones in them. Tapping the icons says they are joined contacts. A couple of questions arise.

Why are there multiple "connections"?

What are the connections joined to?

And is there a way to get rid of what appear to be joined contacts without going through each contact individually?

Thanks for any help.

 

[hereathome]

So a phone icon simply means he/she is a phone contact? Why would I have as many as 5 or 6 phone connections for the same person?